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No. 3 1 1 


T’ BACCA QUEEN 



T’ BACCA QUEEN 

A Novel 


BY 

Theodora Wilson Wilson 

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New York 

D. Appleton and Company 
1902 



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APR. 25 1902 

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OlASS oc XXo. No. 

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Copyright, 1902 

By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



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“ Thy will be done on earth.” Ah ! thus we pray, 
And wonder at the weary, blank delay. 

His will is Justice, Purity, and Love, 

The earthly reflex of . the heart above. 

The sorrows of God’s heart ! Ah, who may guess 
Those yearnings of almighty tenderness ? 

He would that we should join Him in the war 
To crush the power of night for evermore, 

He wills, we will not. Ours the sin and wrong. 
And so this tortured world moves slowly on, 

While with a careless insolence of mirth 
We thrust aside the will of God on earth, 

And down the ages rings that cry anew, 

“ Father, forgive, they know not what they do/ 








PREFATORY NOTE 
TO THE AMERICAN EDITION 


Without anticipating any criticism of this novel, 
one can heartily congratulate Miss Theodora Wilson 
on her knowledge of Westmoreland, and her deline- 
ation of the character of the “ Fellsiders,” as they 
are locally called, of whom she writes. The graphic 
descriptions of the death-bed of old Carradus, of 
T’ Bacca Queen’s dibut at the Primrose Ball, and the 
singing competition, are sure to be read with inter- 
est, while the scene between Calthwaite and Nell on 
Windy Scar is tragically and pitiably real. 

American readers may find that the swift transi- 
tion from Nell’s smooth and gentle English to the 
fierce rudeness of her northern dialect is a little 
puzzling ; but those of us who dwell among the 
dalesfolk of Cumberland and Westmoreland know 
that the people are bilingual. They have one speech 
for “foreigners,” another for native use: in this 
matter Miss Wilson is true to the life. 

H. D. Rawnsley, 

Honourable Canon of Carlisle, Vicar of 
Crosthwaite, Keswick, and Rural Dean. 












T BACCA QUEEN 


CHAPTER I 

Lunch was over, and George Glyn, rising from his seat, crossed 
to his daughter’s side. 

“ Allow me, my dear,” he said, in the quiet manner he in- 
variably used when speaking to a woman ; and with a certain 
gentle politeness the stately old man assisted Mary on to a 
couch near the window, from whence she could obtain a full 
view of the peaceful garden. 

Mary Glyn had passed away from her first girlhood, and had 
been more or less of an invalid for years. 

One hot summer day ten years before, an eager, well-built 
girl came running down the stairs, brightly excited over an 
impending tennis match. 

She slipped — that was all. And from that time life — the 
active physical enjoyment of what life holds most dear — was 
over for Mary Glyn. 

The intellectual glory of existence was still hers. All her 
keenness, her strong love of the World’s children, and still 
stronger love of the World’s Father, remained ; but though 
some guessed, none ever knew the agony of life disappoint- 
ment which seized her at times, when long days of extra torture 
grasped her once vigorous frame, and when events of busy, 
strenuous activity in which it was impossible for her to par- 
ticipate, passed across and away from the path that she was 
destined to follow. 


2 T BACCA QUEEN 

There was a great companionship between the widower and 
his daughter, and to-day, after the man had set down the little 
tray of coffee on a table by the window, George Glyn sat a 
few minutes by the couch before hurrying away to his office. 

Mr. Glyn was the lawyer of Farbiggin. 

There were other lawyers in the town, of course, but it was 
to him that town and county alike looked for guidance in 
difficult and critical situations. 

He and his fathers before him possessed the documents 
and deeds of all the gentry around. There were few family 
secrets that he did not hold; few parcels of land which he 
or his had not conveyed; few mortgages which he had not 
arranged. 

Mrs. Glyn had died many years before, leaving him with 
three children. One of the sons, Henry, the Vicar of Far- 
biggin, was married, but Ryder and Mary were still at home. 

“ I hardly expect to be in to tea, dear,” Mr. Glyn re- 
marked presently. “John Carradus wants to see me this 
afternoon on business. His will, I anticipate. He is near 
his end now. His has been a strange life — I wish I pos- 
sessed more influence over him, but I am his servant in legal 
matters.” 

“ Will he be very unjust, father ? ” 

“ Not unjust, probably, but hard — certainly hard.” 

Mr. Glyn rose from the great lounge chair and paced the 
room steadily. He was a tall, spare man, grey, in fact almost 
white-headed. He wore a moustache and beard closely cut, 
which hid the thin lips which formed the sensitive but reso- 
lute mouth. His nose was long and straight, without the 
least hint of either an upward or a downward turn, and his 
grey eyes were almost hidden by the overhanging eyebrows, 
while his complexion was of that brown-red which told of 
hard riding and walking and fearless combats with the rains 
and storms of Moorshire. 

“If I were sure that his soul were saved,” he ejaculated, 
thinking out loud, as was his habit now in the presence of 
his daughter. “ Such a man ! So self-righteous — such a 


3 


T BACCA QUEEN 

hard drinker, yet Carradus was never a drunkard — so un- 
forgiving. Dear Lord, do Thou in Thy mercy save his soul.” 

Mary did not speak, for she knew her father in this mood. 

He was a keen lawyer — none keener, though honourable to 
the minutest point of the law. He was, moreover, deeply 
“ religious,” and was superintendent of an unsectarian Sunday 
school which he had built himself in the roughest quarter of 
the town. He was a leader of mission services, and a con- 
troller of after-meetings. 

Those who mocked him as a hypocrite, remained to pray 
when once they came under his influence ; and those who re- 
fused the good and chose the evil, fled away from his presence 
as from some avenging angel. 

On The Scarth, where the poor of Farbiggin congregated, his 
word was law, and his prayers were considered more than 
apostolic; and though the roughest were unable to abstain 
from scoffing and scorning a control which they could neither 
understand nor ignore, they were the first to feel that God him- 
self would have been in some way to blame if “ Auld Geordie’s” 
prayers had not received a fair hearing. 

Many a wife had brought a worthless husband and many a 
father a hopeless son to him for reprimand or correction. 

With all women, whether of the aristocracy or of The Scarth, 
he was deferential and ceremonious, but his few enemies scoff- 
ingly declared that he was unduly influenced in his opinions 
regarding them, according to the proportion of beauty or grace 
accorded. But pure he was with all the chivalrous purity of an 
old-world knight, and young men and maidens consulted him 
in half-sentences and mumbled phrases as they stood awkwardly 
before him ; and many a heartbreak and many a life’s misery 
and shipwreck he had obviated by advice, which had for its 
rock foundation the fear of God and a certain far-seeing 
astuteness. 

Mary acted as his useful aide-de-camp, and now that 
physical infirmity had linked her more really with those who 
suffered than with those who rejoiced, the poor were beginning 
to think that they got almost as much good from Miss Mary ; 


4 


V DACCA QUEEN 

and she was thus enabled to pass on shrewd advice, carefully 
hidden away under good-natured raillery, with an authority 
which, though first gained from her position as her father’s 
daughter, was gradually becoming indissolubly connected with 
herself. And then Mary had a keen sense of humour, and her 
father had none — and therein lay an immensity of difference. 

“ Then if you are not coming in to tea, I think I shall try to 
go to the Vicarage, father,” said Mary, as Mr. Glyn was pre- 
paring to leave. 

“ Do, dear,” he said. “ Will you order the carriage ? Ah, 

I forgot to tell you that I have had a new arrangement of 
cushions put into the seat. I hope they will help you, my 
darling.” 

He looked at her with a wistful yearning that brought tears 
into her large brown eyes. 

Mary forced them back, and putting up her arms drew his 
face down to hers. Then she pushed him away from her, and 
laughing brightly, said, “ Oh, father darling, you should not do 
these things. You are always plotting for my comfort. Why, 
what would you give me next ? ” 

“ All the strength I have left in my own strong back if it 
would serve you, dearest,” he replied gently. “ There, now I 
have made you cry. I am sorry — good-bye.” And he hurriedly 
left the room. 

Later in the afternoon George Glyn made his way up on to 
The Scarth. The way was truly upwards, and the tangled mass 
of irregular buildings was perched upon the steep hillside at 
every conceivable angle. Some houses were very low, others 
very high ; some were clean and had been recently rebuilt ; i 
others were in the last stages of decrepitude. 

Neither plan nor system had had any place in the arrange- 
ment of this quarter of the town. 

As a matter of ancient history, the whole of the land had 
once been more or less common property. Squatters had 
built as they chose, and had gained rights through long periods 
of non-disturbance. 

Later, the lands had been acquired by Act of Parliament, and 


5 


T BACCA QUEEN 

were placed in the hands of a certain body of trustees, who 
were apparently more distinguished for their short-sighted- 
ness, prejudice, and huge magnification of their office, combined 
with a subservient subordination to each other, than for any 
particular faculty for trusteeship. 

They sold a site here, and a site there, as a purchaser turned 
up, and therefore left themselves with all kinds of odd, irregu- 
lar scraps of land of little use to any one, which, with a reserve 
price or an impossible building clause evolved by themselves, 
they pathetically put up to auction time after time without 
result. 

These Scarthside Trustees had quite unique ways of interfer- 
ing with and worrying their tenants and those connected with 
them, and at last had gained that summit of success which is 
sometimes granted to the hopelessly incorrigible ; and this 
success was set forth by a saying in Farbiggin that “ Yan might 
do summat wi’t Corporation, but yan could do nowt at a’ wi’ t’ 
Scarthside Trustees.” 

No one in earlier days had had the genius to perceive that 
a veritable Garden of the Lord might have been constructed on 
The Scarth. 

The town straggled along the valley beneath, hugging the 
river and the fog ; but across the smoke, and beyond the 
eastern suburbs, stretched the wide cultivated country, whilst 
beyond lay the hills and the wild Moorshire valleys, which 
wandered away in a northerly direction. 

If any ideal had been conceived and carried out, many a 
cottager might have daily enjoyed some of this loveliness. 

Day by day the wind and the clouds and the mists and the 
sun played on the distances with entrancing changeability, as 
if appealing to one generation after another for sympathy and 
admiration. 

True, there were some houses which were by chance built 
facing the view, but for the most part they were turned back- 
wards and sideways, and all for the want of a mere twist round ; 
the small-paned windows and the narrow doors faced other 
windows and other doors, and ashpits and dirty lanes and 


6 


T BACCA QUEEN 


middensteads, and the fresh air of heaven was choked by the 
smell of refuse and filth of every description. 

The windings of the ways in amongst these dwellings were 
wonderful, and it needed a native or an indefatigable district 
worker to know their idiosyncrasies. 

All the dwellers on The Scarth were as proud of themselves 
as they were despised by the working classes living in other 
parts of Farbiggin. The name Scarthsider was at once a re- 
proach and a glory. 

In the early part of the century, even as late as the forties 
and fifties, no policeman dared venture alone to quell any dis- 
turbance in this district. Fights, quarrels, family feuds went on 
for the most part quite unchecked. 

Sunday by Sunday the boys and girls looked on with respect- 
ful admiration at the bloody fights which took place at the 
popular fighting-ground outside the Wild Boar Inn, the boys 
longing for the time when they could show like prowess, and 
the girls preparing for equal valour on their own doorsteps. 

None interfered, except the police; but fines and imprison- 
ments did very little to curb the lawless tendency. 

Away on the heights above The Scarth, from whence the 
glories of the Lake Mountains and the calmer beauties of the 
Morecambe Bay could alike be seen, gambling and coursing 
were carried on with assiduity. Gradually, however, a feeling of 
some sort of responsibility entered into the hearts of the 
Farbiggin people. 

George Glyn established a mission school, and sought to 
gather in the wanderers. A few cottages were thrust aside, 
and a small church was perched on one of the very steepest 
parts of the hill. A general taming process was established, 
and later, Methodists and Salvationists felt that amongst the 
Scarthsiders there was at any rate an open harvestfield. 

With such efforts came the inevitable result of pauperization, 
and on the day when Mr. George Glyn picked his way with a 
certain fastidious delicacy up through the steep, muddy, refuse- 
bespattered lanes, the inhabitants were divided into those who 
had sunk into an insolent laziness of expectancy, and those 


T BACCA QUEEN 


7 


who had retained the old independent hatred of interference 
from others. But through both classes ran the same uncon- 
trolledness and want of self-government which caused them, 
time after time, to turn again and rend their most indulgent 
benefactors on the slightest possible provocation. 

Happily a deep-seated sense of rough justice lay dormant, 
and the “ renders ” were often the very first to turn round 
and sturdily support those whom they had but a few hours 
before as sturdily abused. 

Thus it was that the meek and easily alarmed workers 
turned back and were seen no more on The Scarth ; but 
others of a less sensitive nature endured the rough abuse for 
the sake of the rough loyalty, and in their battles with the 
people for their own good, enjoyed a fray which was fraught 
with so much real humanity and original humour. 

Mr. Glyn knocked at the door of a particularly old-fashioned 
but superior-looking dwelling on The Scarth. 

In times gone by the house had stood somewhat alone, and 
even now a small garden separated it off in such a way as to 
give it a distinct individuality, and the name of “The Great 
House ” or, in the phraseology of the district, “ T’ Girt Hoose,” 
still bore testimony to days of bygone importance and com- 
parative splendour. 

The door was very wide and thickly studded with square 
nails, and the mullioned windows were leaded and diamond- 
paned. The whole aspect of the house showed there was no 
stint in the up-keep, and the date of 1637 was cut in the 
rough limestone over the porch. 

All around the cottages had established themselves, but 
from the front windows of the Great House there was a clear 
unbroken view of the distant fell lands. 

The moving of John Carradus into this house some thirty 
years ago was considered by the neighbours to be something 
of an impertinence, and they said amongst themselves what 
they dared not have said to Carradus, that “Jack Carradus 
hed a girt cheek to set his sell oop in a hoose like yon.” 

As Carradus cared not the value of his own clay pipe for 


8 


T BACCA QUEEN 

what any one said about him the gossip died a natural death, 
and so it came to pass that John Carradus and his connection 
with the Great House was soon part of the established order 
of things, and in a few years most people had forgotten that 
“ Jacky” had lived in any other place. 

And to-day every one on The Scarth knew that the old man 
was near his end. 


CHAPTER II 

Mr. Glyn was kept waiting a few moments after he had 
knocked ; but he was not of an impatient temperament, so he 
occupied the time by inquiring after the families of several 
small children who stood in the middle of the lane watching 
for the door to open, so that they might catch a glimpse inside, 
The house of death was always intensely interesting to a 
Scarthsider. 

At last the door was opened slowly by a stout middle-aged 
woman, whom Mr. Glyn greeted pleasantly. 

“ Coom in, sir ! ” she said, in a clear, strong voice which 
could be heard all over the house. “ Coom in, sir. He’s reet 
doon bad now, and that awk’ard to do wi’ ! I’se niver doin’ t’ 
reet thing. I do me best, and folk can’t do more ! ” 

“ Perhaps I had better see him at once,” was the reply, for 
Mr. Glyn knew the woman well. 

“ Aye, he’s all on t’ fidge for yer ! ” Then dropping her 
voice she whispered, “ Lawyer ! you'll put in a word for me as 
hes nursed him sa lang ? I kna’ I’se nowt tull him by blood, 
but he hes a deal o’ brass, and he’se niver miss it whar he’s 
goin’ tull ! ” 

“ I think, Mrs. Lancaster, that I will go right in,” and Mr. 
Glyn stepped quietly past her into the large, airy bedroom 
which was on the ground-floor. 

John Carradus was lying on an old-fashioned wooden four- 
post bed, in such a position that he could see the distant fells 


9 


T BACCA QUEEN 

through the window, and an old white bulldog lay curled up 
at his feet. All about him was clean, but excessively homely. 
The floor was carpetless, but the oaken boards were spotlessly 
scrubbed. Above the high oak wainscoting, the walls were 
covered with pink rosebuds and blue violets in alternating 
bunches, and suspended in narrow black frames was a unique 
collection of plans and pictures of old Farbiggin, some of them 
being of great antiquity. 

There were a few prints about, but these were all of sporting 
dogs — greyhounds, terriers, and evil-looking mongrels; and 
just above one picture of a prize bulldog with a fully developed 
under-lip there was a card on which was painted by some 
very unskilled hand the words, “ Grace be unto you, and peace, 
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

The only other thing of interest in the room, beside perhaps 
the simple oaken mantelshelf, was a small square cupboard let 
into the wall between the fireplace and the bed. It was nor 
more than a couple of feet square, but the door was most 
beautifully carved with an interlacing conventional design, and 
the centre bore the same date as the front of the house. 

“ So you’ve coomed ! ” said he shortly. “ It’s time ! ” 

Mr. Glyn sat down by the bed. “Yes, I’ve come, John. 
Now let us get to business.” 

The old man turned on the bed, and brought forth from 
under his pillow a small key. Mr. Glyn opened the cupboard, 
and drew out an assortment of papers. 

“ You’ll find out by them how much I hev, Lawyer ! I’ve 
telt you before partly what there is, but there’s a deal more 
than you think on for. Nobbut a lile matter o’ ^100,000 in 
land and in Sowerby’ Bank, and that’s reckoning nowt at a’ 
for t’ Rope Walk ! ” John Carradus lay back and watched to 
see the effect of the announcement on his lawyer. 

George Glyn, however, made no movement of surprise, but 
lightly bending his head in acknowledgment that he had 
heard, waited quietly for more as he fingered the documents 
before him. 

“ No, don’t you speak, George,” continued the man ; " I’se 


10 


T BACCA QUEEN 

best get it a’ said. It’s a job talking when — ” and he was 
interrupted by a violent fit of coughing. 

Bell Lancaster opened the door. 

“ Shut yon door and be off, thoo pryin’ auld lass ! ” he burst 
forth, and the door was shut promptly. 

“Furst of a’,” he began again, “I want you to set down 
t’ Rope Walk and all yon business wi a couple o’ thousand to 
our William’ lad Jo. William and his eldest Reuben can 
look after their awn sells. They are on t’ reet road tull a 
fortune wi’ t’ corn mill, but his second lad Joe hes stuck tull 
his grandfather at t’ rope spinnin’ and he shall hev it. And 
think on that you set down, that efter him it mun gang tull 
his lile Jack. Jack’s a girt strang lad. He teks efter his girt 
grandfather ! ” 

Mr. Glyn looked up at the wasted hollow-eyed man before 
him, and then remembered bygone days when John Carradus 
was in truth the halest, hardest man on The Scarth. 

“Jack teks tull his auld grandfather and a’ he continued, 
half proudly and half deprecatingly. “ He did yon by his 
sell last Cirsmus ! ” and he pointed to the text on the wall. 
“ His father and oor William’s baith on em religious— ower 
religious for to suit me, but it suits them, and does naabody 
na hurt.” 

“ Then shall I tie up the business to be conducted for the 
benefit of the little boy ? ” queried the lawyer. 

“ Eye ! Tie it up tight, and put plenty o’ rope on tull it : 
but let Jo hev t’ profit while Jack is yan and twenty, and then 
they mun share equal while Jo dies, and then Jack can hev t’ 
lot.” 

“ I understand,” replied Mr. Glyn, making rapid notes. 
“ And now for the rest of the moneys ? ” 

“You’ll mind our Dick?” asked Carradus — “him as niver 
stuck tull his father, but went off musickin’ to Germany when 
he was nobbut a growin’ lad ? ” 

Mr. Glyn bent his head. He still remembered the hand- 
some lad with his air of unusual intellectual refinement, which 
had caused nothing but annoyance to his rougher-natured father. 


II 


V BACCA QUEEN 

“ But you’ll niver have heard wha he got hissell wed tull ? ” 

“No,” was the short reply. 

“ Well, he wed Robert Whinery’ dawghter ! Theer ! ” he 
cried triumphantly, as Mr. Glyn started, “ I’se surprised even 
a lawyer ! Eye, Bob Whinery’ dawghter, I turned t’ lad off for 
his impidence, and he’s niver getten a penny piece from ma 
sen t’ last wage I gev him t’ day he set off unbeknownst to ma 
on his divilment : and Bob Whinery — Sir Robert Whinery, 
High Sheriff o’ t’ County o’ Moorshire — him as ruined hisself 
and died in London three year sen — he turned his dawghter 
off when she wedt a fiddling chap in Germany ! All t’ county 
wondered what sooart of a fule she hed sattled on, and they 
heard tell it was one as went by t’ name o’ Dick Hilliard, and 
so thowght Bob hissell, but I kent it ! I kent as our Dick 
was mate to Bob Whinery’ dawghter ! Look theer in yon thin 
envelope — you’ll find t’ letter he sent ma ! ” 

Mr. Glyn opened the one referred to, and read slowly : 

“Dear Father, — I am very sorry you can do nothing for me, 
for I know that you are comfortably off, and I am not specially 
wealthy. Still I am getting on well for a musician, and this 
letter is to tell you I have just married Beatrice Whinery, 
daughter of Sir Robert Whinery of Witherthwaite. I hope 
that we shall have a long, happy life before us, and may God 
grant the same to you. Remember, father, that I am still a 
Farbiggin man. I love every stick and stone of the place, but 
I cannot leave the music, I cannot indeed. 

“ Give my love to mother and tell her not to fret. I should 
like her to see my beautiful lady. I am known here only as 
Mr. Hilliard, and even my wife has told no one my real name. 
She has been very badly used by her family, and I trust that 
you will keep my secret. 

“ Your affectionate son, 

“ Richard Carradus.” 


Mr. Glyn laid the letter down. 

“ And you’ll find two more, and them’s t’ lot ! ” 

In the same handwriting, dated from the Conservatoire at 


12 T BACCA QUEEN 

Weimar and written some fifteen years later, was another 
letter : 

“ Dear Father, — You will be sorry to hear that I am 
stricken for death. Consumption they say. I shall leave my 
wife and one little lass to struggle along alone. May God 
help them. 

Goodbye, father. William wrote to tell me that mother 
was dead, so though I cannot write to her, I shall soon see her 
for myself. 

“Your affectionate son, 

“ Richard Carradus.” 

The remaining letter was written in a woman’s hand : 

“To Mr. John Carradus, 

“ Dear Sir, — You are my husband’s father, and he has 
been a true husband to me. He is gone now, and he has 
asked me to let you know. Our daughter is twelve years old, 
and we shall stay out here, as I have an opening for teaching. 

“ The address, Mrs. Hilliard, Musik Schule, Weimar, will 
always find me. 

“Yours sincerely, 

“ Beatrice Carradus.” 

“ And she — Mrs. Richard Carradus — is she still living ? ” 

“ No, she’s dead and a’. Dead this short time sen. It was 
in t’ paper. I don’t kna’ wha set it theer.” 

“And I suppose you sent her, from time to time, some 
assistance ? ” 

“ Niver a brass fardin’ ! ” returned the old man violently. 
“Was I, think you, goin’ to kep Bob Whinery’ dawghter 
and him keepin’ his carriage and pair, and drivin’ through t’ 
toon as if all t’ spot belenged tull him when ivery man Jack kent 
as he’d coo to smash soom day? Eh ! many and many a 
time as I’se seed him I’se thowght, ‘ Eh, Bob lad 1 thee and 
me is grandfather tull t’ saam lass.’ Eh man! but he wad 


T BACCA QUEEN 13 

ha’ bin mad, if he’d only ha’ kent it!” And Carradus chuckled 
hoarsely. 

“ And the poor little girl, your granddaughter ? ” 

“ She’s nin sic a lile un ! She’ll be twenty year old come 
Whisuntid, and she’ll be nin sa poor wi ^100,000 behint 
her ! ” 

“ Then you intend to leave the rest of your money to this 
child, Eleanor Carradus, I understand ? ” 

“Ivery hawpenny. Eh, ivery hawpenny ! Eh! BobWhinery 
wad ha’ bin’ that riled he’d ’a’ hed a job to sit his mare ! He 
wad ’a’ given summut for ,£100,000! He was short enough o’ 
brass, as a’ t’ warld kent. Coom, set it doon man ! ” 

Mr. Glyn made a few notes and again looked up. “To the 
daughter absolutely, or tied up with trustees ? ” 

“ Geordie Glyn, you’re an honest man ! I want to leave 
ivery fardin’ to you for t’ lass, and I’se tak it as a girt favour if 
you’ll be her trustee and guardian — you and Miss Mary. She 
could bide wi’ you while she weds. Set doon a couple o’ 
hundreds a year for Miss Mary for tekkin’ a’ t’ fash ! ” 

Mr. Glyn was about to interpose, but the old man waxed 
rate. 

“ Niver a word ! Niver a word ! You’re here to do as I 
tell you. What ! I’se willin’ to pay for t’ job ! ” 

“ You know, John,” said Mr. Glyn, taking not the least 
notice of the manifest ill-humour of his client, “you cannot 
force any one to assume guardianship.” 

Carradus recovered himself somewhat, and said earnestly, 
“ But you will do it, Mr. Glyn, you will ? I wad like t’ lass 
to live wi’ a lady. Her mother was a lady, and her father — 
well, he was on t’ rooad to bein’ a gentleman. Any way, he 
was honest ! ” 

Mr. Glyn was sufficient student of character to note the 
struggle that was going on in the old man’s heart, between the 
long-nursed wrath against this son and a pride which was 
making him do some sort of tardy justice to his granddaughter. 

“ Eh, Mr. Glyn, tek’ her and do t’ best you can for her ! 
T auld woman ’ull rest better in her grave happen, if she kens 


H 


T BACCA QUEEN 


as our Dick’ lass is gaain’ i’ silk and satin oop and doon t* 
streets o’ Farbiggin. Eh, t’ auld body was tekken wi’ a bit o’ 
finery. If you think as £200 a year is over little for Miss 
Mary 

“It is not the question of money, as you know perfectly 
well,” said Mr. Glyn. It struck him as odd that he should be 
bargaining in this way with a Scarthsider. 

“ Aye, George ! I kna’ as you hev plenty, but business is 
business, and I’d like my ^100,000 to stick to t’ lass, and I 
would gang oot o’ t’ warld a deal contenteder if theer was 
some one to mind t’ brass for her. ^100,000! And I’se 
niver spent a fardin’ o’ yon brass. T’ furst start on it cam fra 
my Liverpool brothers as med their fortunes in t’ wool buyin’ 
and I’ve let it graw and graw these thirty year. I’ve getten’ 
a goodish bit o’ land cheap when it was put oop, and many a 
do wi’ them auld Scarthside trustees I’ve hed ower it, and now 
half o’ t’ Scarth belengs tull auld Jack Carradus, and what I 
med out on it I put straight intull Sowerby’ Bank, and theer 
it mun bide ! ” 

“But, John, you would hardly leave all this money in a 
local bank ? ” Mr. Glyn’s business instincts were shocked at 
such an idea. 

“ I kna’ weel enough as auld Sowerby gives little enough for 
it. He’s a close enough chap is Sowerby. But t’ auld feller 
is straight, and he’s theer, and you can see his land by many 
an acre. He’s hed my brass safe for thirty year, and he shall 
hev it to t’ finish. I’se hev no investin’ and lossin’ and 
company mekkin’ wi’ my brass. T’ brass as will come in from 
t’ rents and t’ interest from Sowerby’s ’ull be enough for any 
lass. Any road, that’s what I want you to set down. And 
you’ll let t’ lass bide wi’ you ! ” 

“ On that point I shall do nothing until I have first consulted 
my daughter,” was the reply. “But, John, surely you have 
forgotten your other daughter ? You will not leave her penni- 
less when there is so much ? ” 

Mr. Glyn was not prepared for the excitement which his 
words instantly produced. Carradus’s countenance waxed 


T BACCA QUEEN 15 

almost devilish in expression, and he clenched his fists 
together. 

“ Another dawghter ? D — n her ! ” and here followed a 
volley of oaths. “ Yes, you’re reet, I’ve a dawghter. A bonny 
dawghter ! A dawghter as lives not fifty yard off. A 
dawghter wi’ four childer livin’ and naabody knaws how many 
buried, and ivery yan on ’em wi’ a different father tull ’em. 
My dawghter git a sixpence ? Niver ! Whar did she larn 
them ways, I exe you ? Did her mother, who’s heart she 
vara near brak’, larn her them ? Did her father ? No, George 
Glyn. Sen t’ furst time I kent as our Maria hed disgraced 
hersell I was done wi’ her ! She could gang tull others fer 
her keep. Yon biggest lass of hers — what t’ folk call Nell 
Carradus — will be just sic another as her mother ! ” 

Mr. Glyn knew well the fine, handsome girl referred to. 
She was one of his troubles at the Sunday school, but was the 
acknowledged beauty of the district — being known among her 
companions at the tobacco factory by the soubriquet of “ T’ 
’Bacca Queen.” 

“But, John, you are soon done with life, and you remember 
the word is, ‘ Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them 
that trespass against us,’ and possibly you were not quite 
guiltless. Did you really do all you could to protect your 
child? I think I remember that she was broken-hearted when 
you sent her brother off. How the poor child cried ! Perhaps 
if ” 

“ I tell you I won’t do aught for her or hers. They hev dis- 
graced me, and if I telt you wha Nell’s father was, happen 
you’d jump t’ same as you did a while sen ! ” 

But Mr. Glyn had no desire needlessly to gratify his client, 
and was at the moment more interested in seeking to stop an 
injustice being done. 

“But still, I may put down a legacy or a small annuity? 
Think, John, what your wife would have advised had she been 
here.” 

“ I’ll nut leave Maria nor any of hers one d — ned farthing, 
so that’s t’ finish ! ” 


16 T BACCA QUEEN 

The door opened, and Bell Lancaster in a deprecating voice 
announced “ T’ Doctor.” 

Mr. Glyn rose as Dr. Maddison entered the room, and after 
shaking hands, began gathering up his papers. 

“ Hullo, doctor, sit yersell doon ! You’d best mek’ t’ maist 
o’ yer time. You can coom as often as you hev a mind now — • 
I’se nut begrudge you t’ hawf-croon. You’ve little enough time 
left fer addlin’ yer brass oot o’ Jack Carradus ! ” 

The doctor raised his eyebrows, and a half-smile passed over 
his face as he caught the lawyer’s eye. He turned to the 
patient and said pleasantly, with a certain strong Moorshire 
accent which he adopted instinctively when talking to his 
farming and working-class patients — 

“Why, John, my lad, what have you been doing this after- 
noon? You are quite hot and red ! I’ve not seen you with 
such a colour for a good bit now. Mr. Glyn makes a better 
doctor than I do, I think.” 

“ Me and him hes been hevin’ words ! ” said Carradus 
shortly. 

“ Ah ! ” ejaculated the doctor significantly. 

“ I think,” said Mr. Glyn, “ I will leave you now. I under 
stand your wishes, John, and I will call in again as soon as 
possible.” 

“ A’ reet. I’se best put me hand tull it as soon as may be ! ” 
and he placed his thin white fingers in the firm brown palm of 
the lawyer. 

Mr. Glyn departed, and refused to enter into any conversa- 
tion with Bell Lancaster, who waylaid him, longing to inquire 
what had passed. 

Even Bella Lancaster was, however, unequal to the task of 
storming the reserve of George Glyn when he was in a business 
mood. 


T BACCA QUEEN 

CHAPTER III 


17 


Why do the flowers bloom ! 

Why does the sunset smile ? 

Let me in solitude, shadow, and gloom 
Rest awhile. 

Rest from this joy of life, 

Reckless profusion’s wealth, 

Glamour of sunshine and flowery strife, 

Laughing health. 

Tempest winds swept my soul, 

Lashing its restless sea. 

Passed — yet the surging wave-echoes still roll 
Sullenly. 

Daisies and sunlit plain, 

Live in your summer hour, 

Live — till you lure me to gladness again 
By your power. 

It was always a pleasure and refreshment to Mary Glyn to pay 
a call at the Vicarage. 

There were few places where she felt sufficiently at home to 
bring her invalidism with her, but the kindly, cordial atmo- 
sphere which prevailed in that easy-going old house was at 
once a tonic and a rest. 

Perhaps rest is not quite the right word. There were 
times when the very last thing on earth Mary yearned after 
was rest. 

Yet if she looked wan and thin, if a dark, tired expression 
came into her eyes, overwhelming the brightness which was 
generally to be found there, her friends would say decidedly, 
“You really ought to rest more. You tire yourself.” 

These busy, active friends, with all their innumerable petty 
interests, their gossips, and their businesses, were glad that they 
could tell her to rest. They felt the need of a subsiding peace 
themselves, and were glad that they could honestly tell Mary 
that she was quite justified in indulging in what they would 
have described as a period of idleness. 


i8 


T BACCA QUEEN 


Mary smiled back cheerily enough, but when they had gone 
about their business a dull sense of immeasurable tedium 
would pass over her as she lay back, too tired even to read or 
knit. Every one about her united in saving her strength, and 
Mary fully appreciated all the consideration she received — yet, 
oh for a long walk away by herself amongst the fells ; for a 
scramble amidst the rough stones and the parsley fern and the 
stagshorn moss ; for a ride down to the shining sea ; for a hot, 
panting game of tennis, or even for strength to do a little every- 
day shopping, to take a letter to the post herself, or to bring 
back a book from the library ! 

People said it was certainly a great pity about Miss Glyn, but 
that it was a mercy she had such a very cheerful temperament. 
In fact, many were of the opinion that she did not really suffer 
as much as was at first given out, and that it must be a distinct 
comfort to any one to have so much time in which to do 
exactly as she liked, and to remain untroubled by committees, 
working-parties, call-making, and drawing-room meetings. No, 
Miss Glyn was not badly circumstanced, for did she not live in 
one of the most charmingly furnished houses in Farbiggin ? and 
her ponies were certainly the smartest in the county ; and then, 
of course, she was used to it now. 

Perhaps Mary’s sister-in-law, Catherine, the Vicar’s wife, came 
the nearest to understanding how things were, and there were 
times now and again when she caught a glimpse of soul distress 
which sent her away home to her husband and children with a 
weight on her own heart. 

She was only a young wife when the accident happened, and 
with a motherly tenderness she had helped and supported her 
sister-in-law through those first months of weary suspense 
when girlhood’s strength and permanent weakness lay in the 
balance. 

One bright summer day the London specialist came down 
for his final visit. After the usual examination, the usual 
number of questions were asked, and the usual subdued 
consultation took place in another room. 

Dr. Maddison and the specialist conversed for some time in 


T BACCA QUEEN 19 

the library, into which they finally called Mr. Glyn, who had 
been hovering round in helpless anxiety. 

Then Mr. Glyn called Catherine aside for a few moments, 
and soon afterwards the specialist came in and wished good- 
bye to Mary in the cheerful manner which he assumed on all 
painful occasions. 

Still, Mary was not deceived, though she dared not ask the 
question. She merely lay back quietly on the couch with her 
fingers resting on the unread pages of the book on her 
knee. 

It was Catherine who in that darkest hour of all came to 
her young sister-in-law and told her the truth — the bare, fatal 
truth. 

It was with her arms round Catherine’s neck, that Mary at 
last gave way to her long pent-up, but now quite uncontroll- 
able emotion. 

It was Catherine w T ho first let her weep herself out, and who 
then soothed her and loved her back to peace. 

And that very day Mary’s strong, brave heart took up the 
burden of life which she never again let fall, though at times 
it drooped heavily in her tired arms. 

Her first desire was to comfort her father, and one look at 
his worn, weary countenance caused her to bring forth her old 
happy smile again, as she said cheerfully, “ Good-night, father 
dearest. Sleep well. It is all over now, and I am so very 
glad to really know. You and I shall always be together now, 
and you will be my greatest help ; ” and then as she saw that 
there was no answering brightness in her father’s face she 
added, “And, you know, father, after all, what does it matter? 
It is only such a ‘ little while. ’ ” 

But alone in her room, Mary repeated the last words in a 
sort of dull anguish. “ A little while, O God ! I said a little 
while, and it is all my life — my life. All my life to have this 
pain, this weakness in me — in me myself. And I am only 
nineteen, dear Lord.” 

And the Lord, in His pity, gave unto His beloved sleep. 

But for her father there was no sleep that night. He knelt 


20 


V BACCA QUEEN 

in agony praying the prayer of the world’s great mystery, “ If 
it be possible, let this cup pass.” 

And again the answer came, as of old, that it was not 
“possible.” Fifteen years before, he had prayed that prayer 
with a like grief clutching at his heart, when his young wife 
lay wrestling with death for the sake of a new tender life for 
which she had lived and laboured. She held the grim 
autocrat at bay until her little son lay sleeping peacefully at 
her side. Then with a smile, triumphant in weakness, she 
placed her hand in that of her husband and passed from the 
darkness of pain into the sunlight of the presence of God. 

And now on this summer night the pathos of life in general 
and a strong self-pity seized the man. He became weak as a 
weary child. 

His short married life had been one of exceptional 
happiness, and the madness of solitude was proportionately 
great. Gradually this only daughter had grown up into his 
heart, filling the void in his life, and a new happiness 
which his two boys had failed to awaken came upon him 
through the influence of the bright, active, eager girl at his side. 

And now for a second time the waves and billows passed 
over him, and there was no respite in the roaring. The 
heavens were black and the earth was blacker, and the stars 
had forgotten to shine. Yet all Mr. Glyn could do was to 
cry out helplessly that the burden might be taken from the 
young and laid upon the old. 

But the summer night passed, and the sun awakened the 
earth to new life, and there was no answer to his prayer, but 
the Lord looked down upon the sleeping girl and the man in 
his agony, and still pursued His inscrutable way. 

And now after ten years Mary still lived on, still carried 
her burdened life, but the power of God had visited her and 
she was strong with the strength which victory over strife 
alone vouchsafes. 

And on this bright afternoon, as soon as her father had left 
her to go to his office Mary rang the bell. 

The man-servant appeared. He was not exactly a butler, 


21 


r BACCA QUEEN 

for there was no wine in the house, nor a footman, but held a 
generally useful position, some part of his duty being to carry 
his mistress up and down stairs, or into the garden and 
wherever else she desired to go. 

“ Will you ask Madge to come down, Jacobs ? I want the 
carriage at once, as I am going a short drive. You need not 
make tea to-day, as I shall stay at the Vicarage and the master 
is going out. But dinner will be as usual.” 

The man left the room, and Madge soon appeared. 

Madge was well on in years, having nursed Mary from 
babyhood, and after the accident she became her devoted 
attendant. 

Mr. Glyn had offered his daughter other more cultured 
companionship, but she had preferred the kindly working-class 
woman to any with whom she might have felt less freedom. 

Madge, on her*part, thought “for ever” of her charge, and 
was always fond of proclaiming her virtues and what she might 
have been if she had been strong — and she even knew whom 
Miss Mary might have married. In times of special weakness 
and pain she petted, soothed, and mothered Mary and called 
her “ her own lamb ” ; and Mary felt a comfortable sense of pro- 
tection and privacy in her presence which she greatly valued. 

Madge was an admitted personage wherever Mary visited. 
She did any needful services that might be required, and then 
retired in some amount of state to the servants, who treated 
her with a respect which her age and her well-to-do appear- 
ance demanded. 

Mary repeated the programme she had arranged, and in a 
short time she and Madge were driving along the pleasant 
roads under the smile of the brilliant spring sky. 

As they passed through the streets of the town it was 
wonderful to notice how many persons smiled and bowed, or 
raised their hats to Mary. 

She always looked out eagerly for familiar faces, for she had 
too kind a heart and was possibly too worldly wise to cut or 
disdain any. People — all sorts and conditions of people, 
interested Mary intensely. She was always watching and 


22 


T BACCA QUEEN 


learning, and thinking out character, and she keenly enjoyed 
idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies and foibles. 

Mary, it must be confessed, was something of a caricaturist, 
and amongst her own family she would now and again exercise 
her art, and the Vicarage children especially liked nothing 
better than to get Aunt Mary “ on.” 

Through being spared the least spark of jealousy in her 
nature, and being moreover thrown by her infirmity out of the 
running in this world’s petty competition for popularity or 
success, she was able to look with impartial eyes at the many 
social situations which came within her ken — for social politics 
seethed on all sides. 

Though she herself called at few places, every one called' on 
her, and it seemed as though each caller confided his or her 
news and every pet grievance to her willing self. 

Mary was, however, no mischief-maker.* She had learnt 
some lessons earlier regarding the dangers connected with 
passing on information about others for the sake of the mere 
pleasure of doing so. She had grown wary, and though now 
and then she was caught out, she for the most part sought to 
preserve an honourable reserve about other people’s affairs. 

Mary was often guilty of laughing to herself afterwards, 
when she had vanquished some gossip-monger by means of 
her impenetrable innocence or ignorance — the said gossip- 
monger could not tell which. 

“I won’t be a medium,” she declared. “People can tell 
each other what they want them to know, but I won’t be the 
one to pass scandal on ! ” As it often happened that several 
callers arrived at the same hour, Mary heard plenty of general 
gossip ; but though she put in a word now and again to protect 
a reputation, or set right some obvious exaggeration, she never 
pleaded special knowledge, and though every one was aware in 
a general way that Miss Glyn knew everything, they each felt 
her to be a personal confidant. 

About four o’clock the carriage arrived at the Vicarage gate. 
Its arrival was the signal for a general stampede from within. 

“Aunty Mary, Aunty Mary — oh you angel !” cried Rob, an 


23 


T BACCA QUEEN 

eager-faced girl who was the first to reach the carriage door. 
“ Here you are ! Come at last ! You have not been for a 
week ! ” 

“ Don’t, Rob,” said a tall, quiet girl of about fifteen, “ don’t 
be so rough ! ” 

Aunty Mary was, however, ready for anything, and smiled 
and nodded and tried to shake hands with four pairs of hands 
at once. 

“ Mother is out. She said she would be in at four, but she 
won’t. She never is in at the time she says,” volunteered 
Polly, who was Mary’s namesake. 

“ But we can give you tea ! ” said Rob joyfully. 

The young groom was by this time standing by the ponies, 
and Sybil, a small important personage of six, was already 
demanding to be lifted up to stroke the glossy necks of the 
beautifully kept animals. 

Johnson, the coachman, carried Mary up the short gravelled 
walk into the house and laid her carefully down on the sofa, 
which was always ready for her. 

Madge settled her comfortably and then withdrew. 

The Rev. Edward Glyn and his wife rejoiced in a family of 
five girls. 

Maud was the eldest. Then came Polly, aged thirteen, 
who was an individual of considerable ability, and was pos- 
sessed of a somewhat cynical temperament. She had strong 
aptitude for investigating and getting to the bottom of things, 
and was decidedly opinionated. 

Roberta, or Rob, as she had dubbed herself, was eleven. 
Then came Sybil, aged six, and lastly two-year-old Catherine, 
who at present answered to the name of Kat. 

Maud was fast growing up into a really sweet-looking girl. 
There was nothing brilliant about her, but she had clear grey 
eyes, a broad forehead framed in a mass of rippling brown 
hair, and her general expression was both intelligent and 
thoughtful. She at once took up the role of hostess in the 
absence of her mother, and as soon as she had seen that her 
aunt was happily placed, she rang the bell for tea. 


24 


T BACCA QUEEN 


Afternoon tea at the Vicarage was a particularly social insti- 
tution, especially when there was only a family party, but a 
certain simplicity of manner and unconscious ease made even 
the stiffest callers relax to a cordiality at which they were 
afterwards surprised when considering the event afterwards. 

“ Where is your father ? ” asked Mary, as she watched Maud 
light the spirit lamp under the bright kettle. 

“ Oh, dad is out, wandering round finding mother, I 
expect ! ” Maud, and in fact all the children, were well 
aware of the lover-like devotion of their parents. 

The door opened, and Rob and Sybil burst into the room. 

“ Ah, that’s right ! ” cried Rob, as she saw the tea — “ Oh I 
say, Aunty Mary, what jolly cushions you have got in the 
carriage ! ” 

“ Yes,” cried Sybil excitedly, coming close up to the couch 
and speaking with her small face close up to Mary’s — “ Yes, 
they are lovely ! I jumped up and down and up and down 
on them, and the more I jumped, the more they jumped back 
at me ! ” 

Mary laughed and said enthusiastically, “ Did they really ! 
Well, you know, I believe that those cushions were bought 
from a gentleman named Mr. John-in-the-Box, and — — ” 

“ Don’t be silly, Aunt Mary ! ” interrupted Sybil, who hated 
to think that any one was smiling at her. 

“ Sybil, you ought not to call Aunty Mary silly, it’s rude ! ” 
said Maud, in a reproving voice. 

“No, of course not!” chimed in Rob, “what ever you 
may think, you know!” 

Sybil was not, however, in the least abashed, and returned 
to the charge. 

“And who gave you those cushions?” 

“ Grandfather ! ” 

“ I guessed he did ! ” cried Rob. “ He is sweet. Do you 
know I heard Jane say in the kitchen that grandpapa was 
quite the sweetest man she had ever set eyes on ! ” 

“Toast?” inquired Polly of Mary as she handed her a 
plate of the hot buttered delicacy. 


T BACCA QUEEN 25 

{ ‘ Of course ! ” she replied. “ Do you know, girls, I should 
like to tell you a great secret ! w 

All four looked up eagerly, but there was unbelief as to the 
greatness of the coming communication written large on 
Polly’s face. 

“ Our toast at home is simply horrid ! ” 

“ Is it ?” said Sybil ; and dropping her voice she whispered, 

“ And do you eat it ? ” 

“ Sometimes ! ” 

“ And what do you do when you don’t eat it ? ” 

“ I give it to Vixen ! ” 

“ And does she eat it ? ” again asked Sybil, her eyes widen- 
ing, for she loved to make anything into a story. 

“ Generally ; but one day ” 

“ Well ? ” Sybil was so near now that the soft yellow curls 
were resting on Mary’s shoulder. 

“ One day she left a piece on the floor, and ” 

“And?” 

“ Jacobs came in and found it ! ” 

“Oh !” they all exclaimed, aghast. 

“But what did he do?” said Sybil — “you haven’t finished.” 

“Well, first he looked at it very solemnly, and then ” 

“ Then ? ” 

“ Then he picked it up and put it on the salver and carried 
it away ! ” 

“ Do you know, Aunty Mary,” remarked Polly, “ it does 
seem to me a little strange that you should not have nice 
toast when you want it ! ” 

“ It does ! ” 

“ Can’t you screw yourself up to ask ? ” suggested Maud. 

“ My beloved child, I have been screwing myself up for 
weeks to the point of suggesting an improvement to Jacobs.” 

“You are short of moral courage?” said Polly senten- 
tiously. 

“ Exactly, my dear infant.” 

“Now, if I were you,” said Rob earnestly, considering the 
situation, “I should go about the business like this. Just 


26 


V BACCA QUEEN 

begin by saying to Jacobs this very day when you get home, 
‘Jacobs, I have enjoyed my tea at the Vicarage, and the toast 
was perfectly delicious ! ’ and then you might wonder to him 
where we get our bread from, and the butter you know ! ” 

“ Of course,” said Maud wisely, “ it is not Jacobs who 
makes the toast ! ” 

“ But he bears rule in the lower regions ! ” said Mary. 

“Well, you just have a little confidential chat with him,” 
advised Rob, “ that is how I do when I want things. When 
I want scones, for instance, I ask right out ; but if Martha is 
grumpy I go away, and then come back in a minute and say, 
‘ Oh, Martha, I saw James Martin this afternoon, and I do 
believe he is the handsomest man I ever saw ! ’ That generally 
fetches her; but if not, then I tell her that she herself is 
awfully nice-looking, you know. I almost think that pays the 
best.” 

Mary laughed, and the happiness on her face remained as 
she looked up to see her brother and sister enter the room. 


CHAPTER IV 

“ Hullo ! Here are dad and mother ! ” cried Sybil, rushing 
forward. 

“ Come along ! ” cried Rob. “ We are all friends — no 
proper callers to-day, nobody but Aunty Mary. That is a 
blessing ! ” 

Henry Glyn somew r hat resembled his father in build, having 
t Re same slight figure, but his masses of dark, wavy hair showed 
as yet no sign of grey. 

“Come along, dad, and have some tea; and did you find 
mother ? ” asked Maud. 

“ Of course he did, silly ! ” said Polly. 

“Oh yes, I found her. She was busy bargaining over 
fruit trees at Fell’s and falling in love with that young 
Fleming they have there.” And he looked at his wife 
quizzically. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


27 


“Now, Mary,” said Catherine, “don’t listen to him; you 
know we must have more trees. We have room, and it is a 
pity for the ground to be wasted, for trees grow while you 
sleep.” 

“Of course you can’t plant fruit trees in May, can you 
mother?” asked Polly. 

“ Mother likes to be in time, Polly,” said her father. 

“Now, Harry, I won’t have it,” said Catherine; “you know 
you are simply trying to give Mary a wrong impression and 
make her think that I am extravagant, and I’m not ! ” 

“You see,” broke in Rob, “mother is excellent at 
bargains. She buys all kinds of lovely things — awfully cheap, 
you know. We should never have thought that we wanted 
them, but mother is always thinking, and when the things 
come we all rejoice ! ” 

“ And dad, he smiles sometimes,” said Polly. 

“ And,” said Rob, in a stage whisper, “ what do you think 
mother does when father smiles ? ” 

“ Can’t imagine ! ” 

“ Well — she pouts ! ” 

This discussion of their characteristics by the children did 
not seem to strike the parents as at all odd. Perhaps the 
quiet, even rule which the children were fully alive to, made 
it possible to allow a degree of familiarity which parents 
without this safeguard would have been alarmed at. Besides, 
the children knew exactly how far they might venture. The 
hand was held very lightly on the rein, but the hand was there 
and the children knew it. 

“ Father is out this afternoon,” said Mary, “ so I am having 
a little jaunt ! ” 

“ Your jaunt is a very great pleasure to us,” said her brother 
politely. 

“ You are perfectly right, father ! ” put in Polly. 

“When does Ryder return ? ” asked the Vicar; “he seems 
to have been away a very long time.” 

“Probably next week. Yes, I do miss him. Father is 
always more cheerful when his beloved son is at home. He 


28 


T BACCA QUEEN 


pretends that he is complete with me, but I know he likes 
having Ryder with him at the office. Besides, I cannot 
always find enough conversation when I am shut up so 
much.” 

“No,” said Catherine, “Ryder brings you all the gossip! 
No, don’t deny it, Mary!” 

“ Am I attempting to do so ? ” was the prompt reply. 

“ Uncle Ryder is grand at gossip,” said Polly. “ You don’t 
think he knows anything, but he does. I don’t suppose that 
a cat ever makes plans to catch a mouse in Farbiggin, but that 
Uncle Ryder knows the plot from the very beginning ! ” 

“ Polly ! ” remonstrated her mother, laughing. 

“I think,” said Maud, “ that Uncle Ryder is far too absent- 
minded to consider other people’s mouse hunts : why, he can’t 
even remember his own umbrella, it has been here for 
weeks ! ” 

“It is a blessing for you that he never married, Aunty 
Mary,” remarked Rob. 

“And why?” 

“ Oh, you see he would tell his wife the things instead of 
you ! A married man is no good to a sister. Just think what 
heaps of things father tells mother that he would never think 
of telling us — or you, you know ! ” 

“ How do you know he does not tell me ? ” asked Mary. 

“Well, does he?” was the retort, and Mary was silenced. 

Sybil was earnestly listening to the conversation as was her 
wont, and remarked drily, “ Ah, well, I shouldn’t mind 
marrying Uncle Ryder myself. I don’t suppose that any 
man I can get hold of will ever be as nice.” And she sighed. 
She looked so unconsciously sweet and passive that Mary could 
not help giving her an affectionate embrace. It was very soon 
time to go, for Mary always liked to have a rest before making 
the effort for her father’s dinner. When leaving, of course 
there was much kissing, many parting words and pathetic 
farewells and earnest injunctions for a speedy return. As 
Mary leant back in the carriage she felt rather tired, but never- 
theless she smiled happily to herself. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


29 


How refreshing the young enthusiastic admirat on was to 
her ! It was so honest, so real, so hearty ; and honesty and 
reality and heartiness are precious jewels in this strange world 
of makebelieve and tinsel. 

After dinner that evening Mr. Glyn gave Mary some 
account of his interview with Carradus. 

Mary was intensely interested, and when she learnt that Eleanor 
Carradus was actually living at Weimar, where she herself had 
been at school for two years in the bygone days of her youth 
and strength, a wave of German fever passed over her and 
certainly influenced the decision she was called upon to make. 

“ Hilliard, did you say was the name, Father ? ” 

“Yes, he seems to have always been known in Germany as 
Richard Hilliard. I cannot quite understand what object he 
had in making the change.” 

“ Now I remember quite distinctly. You know, father, school- 
girls are always rather silly.” 

“Are they?” 

“Yes, generally, and certainly most of our girls were. 
Honestly, I was never quite as ‘ Schwarmerisch ’ as some of 
them, but when we went to the concerts we used to ‘ schwarm * 
for different musicians. My personal pet was old Herr Meyer 
the conductor, but lots and lots of the girls went mad over the 
‘ Englander.’ They were perfectly devoted. He was the 
first violin. Yes, I remember quite well, Herr Hilliard ; he 
always looked so pale and clever. The girls were immensely 
excited when he played solos, and we used to watch the quiet 
way in which he stepped about amongst the orchestra giving 
the pitch. He taught some of our cleverest girls. I believe 
he died just after I left school.” 

“ I suppose you never knew his wife ? ” 

“ Oh yes, she used to play his accompaniments. She played 
exquisitely. Never solos in public, but her accompaniments 
were quite perfect. I have never heard any to equal them 
except those of the inimitable Lassen. They always felt to 
me like some sympathetic wind chorus, never interfering with, 
but always supporting the mood of the air.” 


3 o T BACCA QUEEN 

“Did you ever meet her?” His daughter’s information 
was unexpected and valuable. 

“ Yes ; once I remember she came to the school concert. 
Herr Hilliard was very good in playing for us on special 
occasions. I had to ‘ vorspiel ’ and was dreadfully nervous ; 
in fact, I meditated hiding myself in an upper chamber for 
the rest of the evening. Then Frau Hilliard came up to me 
just at the moment and whispered in English, ‘ My child, no 
Englishwoman should be a coward. Let these Germans see 
courage ! ’ These words pulled me together, and I remember 
I played quite brilliantly for me. Herr Meyer was charmed 
and whispered to me, his face beaming with satisfaction, 
‘ Ausgezeichnet ! ’ that from him made up for many tough 
encounters in the music room.” 

And Mary’s face lighted up, as she recalled those happy 
girlish days. 

“And father, yes, I remember the child too. She was 
a little girl, a rather petite child of seven or eight. Very fair 
with large blue eyes, and a mop of light golden hair so different 
from the turnippy tresses of the German girls. She was 
constantly at the concerts, and used to sit just in front of us ; 
we called her Der kleine Goldengel.” 

“ Ah then, I suppose she will be fair and small now perhaps, 
like her mother” — for George Glyn remembered Beatrice 
Whinery perfectly. He was wondering whether the advent 
of the Goldengel would be a joy or sorrow. 

“ She was rather fierce,” said Mary. “ How amused we were 
at her one night. She was getting very sleepy during a long 
overture, and at the final bar her mother lifted her up to take 
her out. At the moment, her father came forward in prepara- 
tion for a solo. This was the signal for a prompt resistance, and 
struggling violently she screamed out, ‘ Aber Nein ! Nein ! 
Will nicht ! Mein Vater spielt ! ’ Every one laughed, and 
Herr Hilliard had to wait a moment. The child, however, 
got her way and resumed her place by her mother’s side, to 
watch every movement of the bow just above her head. As 
soon as the solo was finished, and she joined in the tremen- 


r BACCA QUEEN 31 

dous applause, we heard her say softly, “Jetzt will ich, 
mamma ! ” 

“ Well, my dear, I hardly know what to say. This girl would 
be a companion for you, but then she might be a great charge 
— a great one. And there might be complications. I really 
am rather puzzled.” 

“Yes, I hardly know what I wish myself. Perhaps, father, 
we ought to go straight on, and not look at results or con- 
tingencies. If the Goldengel has been set in our path in this 
strange manner, perhaps we ought to carry her along with us.” 

Mr. Glyn believed very strongly in what he termed 
“ Guidance.” For years he had practically ceased to con- 
sider his own wishes when he thought that the Lord was 
leading him. His danger lay in allowing coincidental circum- 
stances, which he sometimes took for providences, to influence 
his sounder judgment, which he forgot was as certainly 
betowed upon him by his Maker. 

After a good deal of backward and forward conversation, 
Mary suggested that she should think the matter quietly over 
and give her opinion on the following day. 

“ Quite right, dear,” was her father’s response. “ I feel that 
the question affects you far more than any one else, and 
I would not lay any additional straw’s weight on you for 
the world. I think I should miss our pleasant private 
companionship also ! ” 

“ I wonder what Ryder would think about it ? ” said Mary 
meditatively. 

“ I have wondered that, but there really seems no time to 
get his opinion.” 

“No ; well of course he may be marrying himself any time, 
or she might do the same in a very short time.” 

They did not seem as though they could go any further. 

“ Well, father, a quiet think when I get to bed will perhaps 
help matters wonderfully.” 

Mary always retired early, and did not rise until late in the 
morning. By this means she reserved her strength for what 
life brought her in the after part of the day. When she had 


32 


V BA CCA QUEEN 

wished her father good-night and had been taken to her own 
boudoir bedroom, the front bell rang, and Dr. Maddison was 
announced. 

His call was a brief one, and he would not even sit down. 

“I just stepped round, Glyn, to say that if you have 
business in hand with Carradus there is no time to be lost. I 
find he is much weaker to-night. I give him two days at the 
most ; I thought you might like to know.” 

“ I am exceedingly obliged to you, doctor,” said Mr. Glyn 
cordially. “ I felt anxious myself, and put the work in hand 
immediately I returned to the office. I am, in fact, expecting 
a clerk late this evening with a rough draft.” 

“ Hum, well that is all right. His strong mind keeps him 
up, but I anticipate that he will sink suddenly at the end.” 

“ A very sad case for the man himself,” said Mr. Glyn 
soberly. 

“ Oh come, Glyn, I cannot allow you to take the cares of 
the universe on your shoulders like this. Even you cannot grow 
every one to your own pattern, much as I admire it ! ” 

“ Oh, doctor ! ” remonstrated the lawyer. 

“ Well, well, I know I’m an old heathen and quite hopeless ; 
you’ll be worrying about me and my soul next ! ” 

“ I do already,” was the quiet reply. “ I often pray 
for you.” 

The doctor put out his hand. “ Well, well, I do not object 
to your prayers. Good-night.” 

“ Good-night ! ” said Mr. Glyn, earnestly ; and then he 
resumed his meditation until the arrival of his clerk. 

And so John Carradus’s strength failed rapidly, and the lights 
of the Great House gleamed out across the road all the night, 
and were only extinguished when the early morning radiance 
foreran the sun over the brows of the opposite fells. Work- 
men going early to their daily toil looked up at the windows 
and wondered dully if the old man were still there. Boys and 
girls clattered down the road, some hastily finishing a piece of 
bread, others completing their rough, dingy toilet as the mill 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


33 


bells rang insistent warnings. From a stifling, unhealthy 
atmosphere they had for the most part come, and the pure 
spring morning air struck coldly but refreshingly upon them. 
The subdued colour of the sky, so tender, so prophetic of the 
richer tint to follow when the king of all colour rose himself 
majestic, contrasted strangely with the general effect of un- 
kempt humanity now hurrying forth into the daylight. 

The boys and girls noticed nothing ; they were too intent on 
getting to work in time. Certainly Sarah Jameson, a quiet, 
neatly dressed girl of about eighteen, looked up at the 
morning’s beauty and smiled; but then Sarah had rather 
odd ways, so the other girls said, and she set up for being a 
“ bit religious.” 

Beautiful Nell Carradus, too, came running down the road to 
catch up her mate, Sarah, and she also looked up at the sky, 
and felt the cool, refreshing breeze, and threw up her arms in 
all the pure delight of physical enjoyment, and clapping Sarah 
on the shoulder by the way of greeting, remarked, “Grand 
mornin’, Sally!” 

“ Grand ! ” was the reply. 

Both looked up at the windows of the Great House as they 
passed. 

“I wonder how t’ auld feller is!” said Nell irreverently. 

“Oh, Nell! I would not bear any grudge agen him, and 
him dyin’ ! ” 

“ I’ve nowt to thank him for ! ” she replied, with a touch of 
scorn in her voice. “And I’ve nowt to thank naabody for, 
for the matter o’ that ! ” 

And the girls hurried away to the sleepy, dreary, strong- 
smelling tobacco shop or factory, while the other workers 
scattered far and wide in pursuit of their daily bread. 

Shop-girls and clerks were not yet awake ; the more leisured 
town-dwellers had not even drawn up their blinds; and 
drunkards were still sleeping off the effects of their last night’s 
debauch ; and, as always, mysterious angels of pain and birth 
and death had been gliding in and out amongst the closed 
houses all through the night. Even commonplace rugged 


34 


T BACCA QUEEN 


Scarthsiders were constantly dignified and forced into acute 
brotherhood with the rest of the universe by the presence of 
Death. Their dead and the dead of a king were for one brief 
space alike. One day a household was insignificant and even 
contemptible in the eyes of the neighbours — the next supremely 
important, in its ownership of the dead. And to-day the 
unseen presence was about them once more. 

He had waited apart during the hours of the night, to press 
forward to claim his own in the day. And his coming was not 
the less mysterious because he came clothed in the sunlight, 
cold in the warmth of a spring day, noiseless midst the love 
songs of the birds, intangible midst the breath of early flowers. 


CHAPTER V 

Although William Carradus and his wife had kept watch 
all through the night there had been little change, for the old 
man had slept peacefully, and woke refreshed and quietened 
after the nervous excitement which the doctor had noticed on 
the previous evening. Bell Lancaster did the necessary work, 
with subdued noise and increased importance, but John 
Carradus’s son William and his wife Janet were supreme in 
control. She and her husband were sitting together in the 
pleasant kitchen taking some much-needed refreshment. 
William wore a grave, earnest look, and sat drinking his tea 
soberly. His wife glanced at him now and again, and busied 
herself over the meal. Janet was a kind, practical woman, 
who respected her husband, and followed him in his intel- 
lectual and religious flights as far as in her lay ; and for the rest 
kept the household going and the family contented, had a 
pleasant gossip for a neighbour, and maintained a kindly, 
indulgent outlook on those around her, for ever thankful that 
in her husband she had “ getten a good ’un.” 

There had been a time when William had been far from 
answering to such a description. He would himself have said 


T BACCA QUEEN 35 

he had been travelling on the high road to hell, and was a 
brand ready and prepared for the eternal burning. 

William had been converted. Really converted, there had 
been no mistake about it. From a swaggering, gambling, fast- 
living youth he had turned right round and met the Lord. 
The power of the Lord came upon him as truly as it 
did of old to Saul of Tarsus, and he broke resolutely with 
his old life. 

His young wife rejoiced at the change, and from that day 
forward the steady fear of God changed the man, and all the 
latent power within him was husbanded, instead of being 
sacrificed and squandered. In a word, William Carradus 
began to get on. 

Consequently when William took up his parable and 
preached to his fellows, he put the religion and getting on 
in the world side by side as inseparably dependent the one 
on the other. Others might say that religion led to poverty, 
to abasement, to weakness, but with him experience was all 
the other way, and he rejoiced in the plenitude of Old 
Testament promises held out to the ancient Jews of advance- 
ment consequent on obedience. “ Blessed shalt thou be in 
thy basket, and blessed shalt thou be in thy store,” had a real 
meaning to him, as had the words of the wise Preacher who 
preached that in return for honouring the Lord with his 
substance the barns should be filled with plenty and the 
presses should burst out with new wine. Certainly William 
was obliged to use the latter phrase in a parabolical sense, 
for to him alcohol was the liquification of the Devil himself. 

Perhaps William’s strongest support in the chances and 
changes of life was that given him by his own “ experience.” 
His experience was precious indeed to him, and as he told it 
during some white-heated after-meeting, his face glowed with 
enthusiasm, and he spoke as seeing Him who is invisible. 

Probably to a man of his nature a strong, vivid experience 
of conversion was essential. Certain it was that he possessed 
it and that it possessed him. Therefore it was that William was 
truly arid anxiously depressed over the state of his father’s soul, 


36 T BACCA QUEEN 

“The Devil is gripping me father tight, Janet,” he said 
mournfully. 

“Eh! William, don’t fret,” said his wife soothingly as she 
handed him a freshly fried egg ; “ the Lord is merciful and full 
of compassion.” 

“ But he will not spare the guilty,” he responded, “ and me 
father has never repented.” 

“How dost ta kna’?’’ asked she. “Happen he tells the 
Lord more nor he tells thee and me.” 

“ Happen,” said he doubtfully. “ But it is with the mouth 
that man confesses unto salvation.” 

Just then Bella entered the room. “ He’s exin’ for yer, 
Mr. Carradus.” 

William rose hurriedly and left his meal. 

The old man was lying propped up in bed so that he might 
get his breath more readily, but even since yesterday there 
was a noticeable change, and a peculiarly grey look was the 
most striking impression of his face. 

“Thoo’se better this mornin’, father?” his son asked 
anxiously. 

“ Eh, better and warse. I’se niver see another mornin’ — > 
this is t’ last. Isn’t it, auld dog ? ” and he patted the head of 
the faithful Bull who was lying at his side. “ Does ta see yon 
sun, lad ? It’s eighty year sen I furst sa t’ sun, and then I 
niver kent it ! ” and he smiled wanly at the thought of himself 
as a tiny, blinking infant. 

“Can I do aught for tha, father?” asked his son. 

“ Aye, will ta fetch t’ lile lad ? I’se like to see him yance 
moor afore I set off. It’s a lang road I’se be travellin’ noo, 
Bill ! ” His voice took a wistful turn, and his son suddenly 
thought that his long prayed for chance had come. 

His father resented so strongly any reference to religious 
subjects that he had never dared speak to him lately on this, to 
him, all absorbing subject. 

“ Eh, father, father, if thoo wad only repent and give thy 
heart to the Lord ! Do, father ! ” and the son knelt down by 
the bedside and clasped the white, soft fingers. 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


37 


But Carradus drew them away. Don’t, Bill lad, don’t ! 
It’s ower laat noo. I’se niver ga sneakin’ into glory at t’ last. 
Eh dear, but I’se miss T’ Scarth and T’ Auld Hoose. I’se 
capped hoo I’se sattle at a’ whar I’se gain’ tull. I’d a deal 
ruther bide whar I is.” 

“ But father ! ” cried the son, making one last effort, 
“ think of the burning and Hell ! Oh father, thoo moant ga 
to Hell. Thoo moant indeed — I can’t bear it ! ” 

“ If I mun I mun,” was the reply. “ Don’t thee fash thysel’, 
Bill. I was niver brawt up religious, and I never took tull 
it at efterwards. Don’t worrit thysel’, theer’s a good lad. 
Thee and thy Janet hes been good tull me, and I’se tell t’ 
auld woman when I set eyes on her ! ” 

It seemed as though William could not press the point, 
and he knelt helplessly before the great tragedy of a naked 
soul about to meet its Maker. 

“ Fetch t’ lile un, William ! ” said Carradus faintly. 
Little Jacky was fetched and he was delighted to sit up beside 
his great-grandfather, and he chattered away happily as he 
stroked Bull’s head with fearless pleasure. 

“Would ta like yon beast, Jack lad, when thy gran’father 
gaas off? ” 

“Eh, I would so — but whar is ta gain’ tull, gran’father ? ” 
asked the child wonderingly. 

“ I’se dyin’ ! Does ta ken what yon means ? ” 

“ Oh, aye ! It’s when folk gaas off to ‘Jesus, Blessed Jesus.’ 
Shall I sing it to tha ? ” 

“ If thoo’s a mind ! ” 

And the child promptly piped forth in a shrill treble : 

“ ‘ Sweetest note in seraph song, 

Sweetest name on mortal tongue. 

Sweetest carol ever sung — 

Jesus, Blessed Jesus.’ 

“That’s t’ saam Jesus as I talks tull as I gaa to bed. 
Exe him wedder of nut he minds me when thoo sees him, 
gran’father ! ” To the child how real these things were ! 


T BACCA QUEEN 


38 

to the man who was about to know for himself, how shadowy ! 
“ Will ta tek yon with tha, gran’father ? ” he continued, 
pointing to the text on the wall. “ Thoo could let granny 
see it ! ” 

Carradus followed the direction of the little finger, and 
his lips formed the words silently, “ The Peace of God ! ” 
“There is no peace for the wicked,” were the words that 
passed into his mind from some long-forgotten time. 

“ Give thy wicked auld grandfather a kiss, and get tha 
off!” he said quietly. 

The child looked at him in surprise. 

“Thoo’s nut wicked, gran’father! Jesus loves thee and 
me ; we’se both lost sheeps — thoo is a girt un, and I is a lile 
un, and t’ lile uns gets carried, but t’ girt uns hes to walk. 
It’s in my picture at yam ! ” 

Carradus smiled at the child. Perhaps he was right — who 
could say ? — but he was very tired and longed for rest, and he 
did not feel as if he could ever walk again. 

Presently the world seemed to reassert itself, and he asked 
querulously whether Mr. Glyn was coming. 

As if in answer to his wish, George Glyn was announced. 
He began his business without parley, for he saw that his time 
was short. 

He had a few questions to ask, and some points to settle 
first. 

“ Who is to have this house ? ” asked the lawyer. 

“ Eh ! eye, I hed forgetten. It was William. T’ hoose and 
garden, and a couple o’ thousand.” 

He spoke with some difficulty. 

“And you still are quite sure, my friend, about the rest — 
still nothing to Maria ? ” Mr. Glyn spoke very distinctly and 
leant a little forward. 

“ Nowt ! ” was the steady reply. 

“ With regard to your granddaughter, Carradus, Miss Mary 
and I have decided to do as you ask us until she becomes her 
own mistress.” 

A look of great satisfaction passed over the man’s face, and 


T BACCA QUEEN 39 

he moved his hand feebly. Mr. Glyn saw the movement and 
took the hand in his. 

“Yes, Carradus, by God’s help we will do our duty by 
Eleanor Carradus, or Eleanor Hilliard as she thinks herself.” 
Mr. Glyn left the room for a few minutes and the additional 
alterations were made, and then he returned to get the 
signature in the presence of two clerks he had brought with 
him as witnesses. 

It seemed as though with the completion of the business 
the strength of the dying man gave out. 

He lay back panting for breath, and Janet came in to give 
him what help she could. 

“Janet lass ! ” he gasped — “exe him to bide ! ” 

Janet knew well whom he meant. 

“ Mr. Glyn, stop a bit, sir, we should take it very kindly,” 
her voice sank to an awestruck whisper. “I doubt he’s 
freetened ! ” 

She was quite right. 

A deadly horror of coming death had fastened upon the 
man, and he cried out hoarsely, “George Glyn, Geordie, 
Geordie, pray, He’se happen hear tha ! ” 

Mr. Glyn knelt, as he had knelt at many a bedside, and 
lifted up his voice in prayer to the One in whose presence he 
so consciously lived. 

“ Dear Lord, save him ! for the sake of Thy death on the 
Cross ; pardon and cleanse him for the sake of the Christ who 
died for us all.” 

“The peace of God!” muttered the old man. “There’s 
naa peace for the wicked. I’ve been bad, but there’s been 
warse nor me ! ” 

Then he broke forth again, stretching out his hand to Mr. 
Glyn. “ Kep hod on it, kep hod on it ! Bide wi’ me to t’ 
finish. Oh ! my God, it’s dark — and the sun — I thowght the 
sun ” he broke off in a fit of coughing. 

William and Janet had come into the room, and Jo, little 
Jacky’s father, was standing by the door. 

“ Jo ! It’s Jo ! He’s a fine lad ! Jo — no, they called him 


4 o 


T BA CCA QUEEN 

Dick ! Dick, lad, I meant nowt. I’se aulus loved tha, Dick, 
I’se asked God many a time to bless tha, Dick — God damn me 
if I haven’t ! Come back, Dick, coom ! Thy mother is frettin’ 
for tha, lad ! ” 

The watchers looked at each other. “He’s lost hissell, Jo,” 
whispered William, “he is thinkin’ of thy Uncle Richard.” 

It was just noon, and the sunlight flooded the room, but 
there was nothing but increasing greyness on the sick man’s face. 

He lay gasping in long, deep breaths. 

Mr. Glyn leant over him, and said softly and clearly the 
words, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned 
every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the 
iniquity of us all ! ” There was no sign of hearing, and Mr. 
Glyn’s low, even voice continued, “ Like as a father pitieth 
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” 

Still there was no response. 

Suddenly he raised himself, as if conscious of some sound. 

The door opened quietly, and a woman appeared. 

Janet rose hastily. 

“ Maria, Maria dear,” she whispered, “ for God’s sake don’t 
upset him. Eye, eye, I k*na he is dyin’. He can’t last long 
noo, but tlioo knaas — oh dear, dear Maria, don’t, theer’s a 
good woman ! ” 

But the other pushed past her roughly. She was startled as 
she saw the form motionless on the bed. 

“ Father ! ” she called. 1 

John Carradus opened his eyes on hearing the voice, and 
looked at her, but there was no sign of recognition in his face. 

“ Father, father ! ” she cried again almost petulantly. 

Words came thick and low from the heavy lips. “Eye, she 
went, did Maria, oor awnly lass ! Hes ta brawght thy dada his 
dinner ? -Theer’s a fine lass. Give thy dada a kiss ! She’s a 
bonny lass. No ! she niver did it. I tell tha thoo’s a damned 
liar. Don’t tell t’auld woman ! Whar is lile Maria ? She was 
aulus a bonny lass ! ” 

The woman came to the bed and leaned over it. None 
could stop her even if they had dared. 


T BACCA QUEEN 41 

“ Father, father, here I is. Thy lile Maria ! ” 

But there was no response from the fast glazing eyes, and 
the woman sank down on the floor. 

Nothing more was of any avail. The breath now came in 
unsteady gasps, at longer and longer intervals. 

The dog raised himself and crept right up to his master and 
softly licked one hand, and Mr. Glyn held firm hold of the 
other. 

The room was quite still except for the heaving breath and 
the low, hysterical sobs of the woman. 

Again the door opened, and Dr. Maddison entered. He 
stood back, realising that his work was over, and that already 
the unseen visitant was in the room. 

There was no further recognition, no further word said, and 
gradually the labouring breath ceased, and the spirit returned 
to God who gave it. 

William Carradus took his sobbing wife away, but the 
woman Maria remained kneeling by the bed. 

“ Come ! ” said Mr. Glyn quietly. “ You must go now — 
there is nothing more you can do.” 

“ Curse him ! ” she cried wildly, and then burst into maudlin 
weeping. 

“ Oh dear, oh dear — eh, he was hard, hard. I wouldn’t have 
cared if he’d only spoke to ma ! ” Then a sudden idea seized 
her. 

“ Lawyer, hes he left me and mine any brass ? I will kna’ ! ” 
and she stamped furiously. 

Dr. Maddison stepped forward. 

“ My good woman, this is most unseemly. Leave the room 
this moment. Do you hear?” Dr. Maddison was used to 
being obeyed. 

She rose slowly. 

“ Out you go,” he stormed, in a fierce whisper. “ What the 
devil do you mean by disgracing yourself before the very dead ? 
Go home and take my advice for once — don’t touch the bottle 
until the funeral is over, at any rate. You’re reeking of the 
beastly stuff this very moment.” 

4 


4 2 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


The woman turned furiously. 

“ Mother ! ” said a stern voice behind her. Nell was there, 
her eyes blazing. “ Mother, fer sham’ ! Can’t ta behave 
thisell ? Coom ! ” 

And the woman turned and followed her daughter out of 
the house without another word. 


CHAPTER VI 

The town of Weimar in Saxony lay peaceful and comforted 
under the deep blue of the spring sky. 

Truly at last the winter was over and gone, the flowers began 
to appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds 
had come. 

For months the snow burial had continued. Double 
windows and well-fed stoves seemed but poor efforts after 
warmth ; chilblains made walking a torment and piano prac- 
tising a burden ; even skating lost its charm, and exercise was 
benumbed into quietude. 

In Weimar the inhabitants take the winter soberly. Skating 
comes pretty much to an end as soon as the first good ice has 
been cut up. Tobogganing is not fashionable except as carried 
on by the indefatigable children who slide down the grassy 
slopes outside the Old Schloss. Even such effort was con- 
sidered by the sombre officials as disrespectful to the Gros 
Hertzog, and was stopped ; but happily the great man himself 
missed the music of the children’s laughter, and wondered 
whither it had vanished, and so the children were recalled, 
and full merrily they came. 

No, the winter joys of Weimar are indoor rather than 
outdoor. The Weinacht’s Fest is celebrated with all the fas- 
cinating romance of the Vaterland. The theatres, concert 
rooms, ball rooms, call the cold-stricken people together, and 
they come through the old streets and Gassen befurred and 
beshawled, ready and eager for social enjoyment. 


43 


T BACCA QUEEN 

So when the sun resumes his sway and the earth softens at 
the touch of his warm lips, and all the cherry trees trail in 
snowy whiteness mile after mile along the wandering high 
roads; when the mist of emerald lies clingingly on the dull 
red earth ; and the lush hay grass grows strong and high in the 
low-lying fields where the lazy level streamlets rise ’neath the 
soft spring rain, and creep higher up the sodden banks ; and 
the silver green of the glistening willows laugh with a quivering 
laughter to the birds that are making so free with their closely- 
cropped heads — then it is that the earth’s release comes as 
such a surprise and happiness. 

The old Schloss stands as ever, calm and imposing. With the 
passing of the snow, which had covered every roof and chimney 
and gable, perhaps some of the fairy-like romance of the place 
had vanished, but even under the most brilliant summer sky it 
still retains its old-world charm — its stolid commanding pre- 
eminence. 

In the Schloss Park the evergreens have long since shaken 
off the snow, and the verdant vanities of spring growth are 
everywhere apparent. 

Two girls wandering along the road which led past the 
old Garten Haus, where Goethe used to retire for primitive 
privacy, were making their way across the park towards the 
wide Chausse, with its two-mile avenue, called the Belvedere 
Allee. 

They were walking arm in arm in a most leisurely manner, 
and were evidently in no kind of hurry. 

The conversation was being conducted in English, though 
over and over again German expressions pushed themselves 
into evidence. 

Both girls were fair. 

Katchen von Hervart was tall and rather massively built. 
She had a flat face, of a dull paleness ; hair light and abundant, 
which was strained tightly back from the face, which, however, 
looked pleasant and good-natured enough. 

The other, Eleanor Hilliard, was very fair also, but the hair 
was touched with gold, and no human endeavour was able to 


44 


T BACCA QUEEN 

smooth or control the aureole which burst out from under the 
simple round black cap. The face was pale also, but the com- 
plexion was clear and white, except where the wild-rose tint 
had been blushed on to the rounded cheeks by the fresh 
spring air. Eleanor’s eyes were of a deep blue, and she had a 
straight nose and delicate nostrils, a short upper-lip cleanly 
cut, apd a small, shapely mouth which hid rather than 
revealed the dainty teeth ; while a resolute little chin, with 
just the hint of an upward turn, gave the final touch of 
decision of character to the face. 

“ Aber wie wunderschon ! ” exclaimed Katchen, pointing to 
a golden laburnum which stood out against the deep-blue 
background. 

Eleanor pulled her arm out from under Katchen’s light 
cloak, and exclaimed petulantly — 

“ Now, Katchen, German again ! I won’t have it. I am 
here to talk English to you, and you persist in talking 
German. I shall resign ! I shall indeed ! ” 

“ Aber liebes Kindchen ! I mean dear little child — I 
cannot always so remember ! And ‘ beautiful,’ that word of 
yours, is not the same as wunderschon ! ” 

“ Well — say wondrously beautiful or exquisite, then ! ” 
Katchen shrugged her shoulders in the true German style. 

“ Ach, that is not also wunderschon ! I want one little 
word to tell you that the laburnum is a wonder — that each 
golden blossomchen is a dwelling for a fairy — a little sky fairy, 
Eleanor dearest ! ” 

The other laughed, and retorted soberly as became a 
teacher, “Now you are wrong again with your blossomchen. 
I have told you over and over again that ‘ little ’ is the expression 
we have for your ’chen ! ” 

“ I know, I know,” returned Katchen, quite unconvinced ; 
“ but that is so round about — as you say, so beschwerlich ! ” 

“ Cumbrous,” interrupted Eleanor sternly. 

“Well, cumbrous then. Now I cannot call you every time 
my little Eleanor, but Helenchen, that is so simple, so 
expressive.” 


T BACCA QUEEN 45 

“ There you are again,” said the irate teacher. “ I shall tell 
your Frau Mutter that you are hopeless ! ” 

Katchen laughed merrily, and pulled her companion along 
more quickly. 

“ My little Eleanor, you are tired. Herr Professor, he has 
been quite too much for you this morning. Come, we will go 
for one little chocolade and cream and some Schiller Locken 
at the Conditorei, and that will make this child once again 
contented ! ” 

Eleanor dearly loved chocolade, as also the creamy pastries 
termed Schiller Locken, in honour of the curls of the great 
poet. She had therefore no objection to the proposal, and 
the girls made their way across the chauss^e, through the 
town into the market-place, where the Conditorei was 
situated. 

“ Would you rather have afternoon tea ? ” asked Katchen 
slyly, for she was taking upon herself the role of hostess. 

“ No,” replied the other, “ I may rage at you for the 
German, but I shall be German myself always ! No England 
and English ways for me, thank you ! ” 

She spoke bitterly, and tossed her golden head con- 
temptuously. 

“ Ah, I know that you are quite German now, Helenchen, 
but I know — I know you would fly to your England, if she 

called you, as to the arms of a ” a mother she was going 

to say, but just stopped herself in time. “ Ach, I talk lauter 
Unsinn-utter nonsense. Pardon, gnadiges Fraulein ! ” 

Eleanor knew perfectly well why she had stopped, and 
appreciated the kindly intention. 

“My dear child, I feel nothing towards England now but 
anger. The English they are cold, heartless, stiff. They do 
not know warmth, or music, or die Bezauberung — or love ! ” 

“ There you are, you deutche Englanderin ! Well, well, we 
shall see. I am glad, however, that you like the chocolade 
better than the afternoon tea ! ” 

Eleanor did not contradict the remark. 

With Katchen certainly the chocolade was preferable; but 


46 


T BACCA QUEEN 

to Eleanor the word “ afternoon tea ” merely recalled sweet pain 
and a certain primitive little room above the stationer’s shop. 

How often she had lighted the “ spiritus ” under the kettle 
and set the embroidered linen cloth, and put out the real 
Dresden china teapot, and the cream-jug and the two delicate 
cups and saucers with the quaint Apostle spoons. A white 
Semmell or two, butter and a plate of Kuchen. And when the 
kettle boiled she poured the water on to the tea-leaves, some 
of which were real Orange Pekoe, and the whole room smelled 
fragrantly. 

One cup for herself, and the other for the mother who sat 
in the easy chair by the little window which looked down on 
to the quiet street, and away across through a gap in the 
houses opposite, to the distant horizon with the undulating 
country between ; just a scrap of the west, from whence the 
sun smiled his loving good-night ; and along the windowsill 
were ranged in their season, hyacinths, cyclamen, daffodils, 
primroses, mignonette, monthly roses — all kindly remem- 
brancers of a bygone life. 

What pleasant times the golden-haired mother and daughter 
had together as they gossiped and chattered away like old 
maids, as the little Eleanor would remark ; and how pleasant it 
was to boil the water and get out the basin and wash the tea- 
things, and dry them and put them neatly away in the cupboard 
under the bookcase ! 

But that was all long ago. Nearly a year, and the little 
Dresden china teapot and cream-jug and the two little cups are 
packed safely away now. And Eleanor agrees with Katchen 
that she does not care about afternoon tea. 

Fraulein Katchen von Hervart stalked into the shop with 
great assurance, and was received with politeness by the 
attendant. 

Were not her parents, Herr General von Hervart and his 
Frau Gemahlin, prime favourites with the Gros Herzog and 
his Frau Gemahlin ? And was there not more Confectionary 
and Kuchen ordered at the Villa Alma than at any other house 
in Weimar? 


T BACCA QUEEN 47 

So the girls sat down in a quiet corner, and Katchen gave 
the orders. 

** Here’s to the success of the new position, Fraulein 
Lehrerin Hilliard ! ” laughed Katchen, as she took first plunge 
into the creamy chocolade. 

Eleanoi laughed. “Ah, yes, Katchen, as you know, I do 
feel tremendously conceited this afternoon. Fancy me — me 
an Englanderin, assistant music teacher to the great Herr 
Professor Meyer ! It is too unspeakable ! ” 

“ Ah, but I have jealousy,” said Katchen. “ Oh, I know he 
adores you — you kleines Engelein ! Nothing but lectures and 
abusings for me ; but the Englanderin, ach ! she may do 
anything, anything, and der Herr Professor he ” 

“ Nonsense,” returned Eleanor. “ You know I catch it 
horribly. I nearly gave up music a few weeks ago, I was so 
awfully sick. If it had not been a case of bread and butter I 
should have done so. I should indeed ! ” 

“ Oh no, you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t. You couldn’t, you 
know ! I remember that Polonaise of Chopin’s ! ” 

“ So do I ! ” 

“Yes, you would not play it loud enough, you would not 
excite yourself— you had gar keine Lustigkeit. And the Herr 
Professor, he becomes more excited, and again more excited, 
and his face becomes full of storms ; and Fraulein Hilliard she 
sits there so mild, so English, and she plays on and on ganz 
mechanische, like some muddy stream. Ach, I sit myself alone 
in the corner full of terror, and the Herr Professor he seizes 
the Englanderin by the shoulder and flings her from the stool, 
and she stands — oh so still and calm behind him ! And he 
sits himself down at the Fliigel, and he plays — ach wie der 
Teufel ! and the fiercer is the music, the stiffer and the 
calmer, and the more insulting is das Madchen, and as he 
finishes she says quietly ‘ Ich danke Ihnen Herr)* Professor, 
Guten Morgen ! ’ and she leaves the room. Ach, coward that 
she is — this Englanderin, to leave den Deutchefv Madchen 
alone with dem Teufel ! ” 

“ Now you know that you were charmed to have him all to 
yourself ! ” 


48 


V BACCA QUEEN 

“ Charmed ! I was nearly weeping, and he turned and saw 
me miserable, and he said ganz ruhig, ‘Nun, nun. Now play 
me a little piece’ — just as if there had been no wilde 
Englanderin in the world.” 

“But he was sweet afterwards,” said Eleanor enthusiasti- 
cally. 

“Ach yes, but Fraulein Englanderin came down from that 
high horse ! To live for three days afterwards in the same 
house with Helenchen and her Polonaise — Terreeble ! ” 

Eleanor laughed herself at the remembrance. 

“ And she, the next lesson, so meek, so gentle, and the 
Herr Professor so quiet ! Ach ! it was wie Himmel in der 
Holle ! ” 

“Yes,” interrupted Eleanor, warming with the remem- 
brance, “ and he said so politely, in German, ‘ What do you 
propose to play me to-day ? ’ and I said, ‘ A Polonaise von 
Chopin,’ and he said ‘ Schon schon ’ ” 

“ And then he got up and walked about the room, and you 
sat down without any Noten, and played — ach ! as you had 
never played before ” (“ or since ” put in Eleanor) — “ or since, 
I believe, and you copied the way he had played it himself — 
Strong, Appassionata, Pianissimo, Staccato, Ruhig, and he 
was mad, crazy, and he kissed your hand and ” 

“ Did just what your jolly, warm-hearted German masters 
do,” put in Eleanor. “ Well, any way he is an old dear to let 
me teach under him. Why, Katchen, I shall be quite rich in 
time. Your dear kind mother gives me a home, and with my 
other pupils and this position I shall soon be quite indepen- 
dent. How lovely that will be ! ” 

“I suppose it will,” said Katchen, who had never had a 
money worry in her life, but had always enjoyed an unlimited 
allowance for the limited wants she found within herself. 

“ Oh, you innocent chicken ! ” remarked the worldly-wise 
Eleanor ; “ you don’t know what it feels like to have the great 
busy world rearing itself above you until you feel like a weak 
boneless worm awaiting the final crush ! However, I am 
nearly through the wood now, and your father and mother 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


49 


have been angels to me. I shall never, never forget them. 
Father and mother, to the fatherless and motherless. When 
I was a stranger they took me in ! ” 

The girl half rose. 

“ Aber Helenchen, we have always loved you so terribly ! ” 

“Yes, as you say, you have always loved me, but that only 
makes the debt, the everlasting debt the greater. But there, 
I think we have been sentimentalising long enough — and just 
think what we have eaten ! Really, I am quite ashamed ! ” 

“I’m not in the least. Just wait a moment, I must have 
some chocolates as I am here,” and Katchen selected a large 
package of the best and most delicate the shop afforded. 

“ I hate common chocolates ! ” she remarked, half in excuse, 
as they left the shop. 

They made their way through the market-place, past the old 
Stadt Kirche, along to the West Weimar road until they came 
to the substantial-looking residence Villa Alma. 

From the road entrance the house looked very much like 
one of the German piles of flats. There was a little scrap of 
garden in front, and a long verandah well covered with creepers, 
from which French windows opened into the various sitting- 
rooms. 

The ground on which the house was built formed a kind of 
ridge, and from the back the garden sloped away downwards 
towards the pure country fields, beyond which rose the faint 
outlines of the Thiiringer Wald. No expense had been spared 
in - the garden. Smooth lawns, shrubberies, evergreens, 
herbacious borderings followed each other artistically. Even 
as the girls entered from a little side path which ran round 
the house from the front, the gardener and his assistants 
were busily planting out the beds for an exquisite summer 
show. 

“ Ach, Hans,” said Katchen in German, “I am very glad 
that you are getting forward with the planting. This frontage 
has looked rather dreary for some time. I want you to show 
zum Englischen Fraulein that we can have lovely gardens in 
Germany as also in England, of which she is so proud ! ” 


50 T BACCA QUEEN 

Hans grunted, “ Das Gnadige Fraulein will perhaps see that 
in Germany we love the flowers, more — far more than in 
England. The postmaster’s son who only the other day 
returned from the great London, he says that the flower shops 
even in little Weimar are far more beautiful than any he saw 
there — and think now in Berlin, ach ! ” and the old man 
straightened his back and threw up his hands in admiration 
of his thought. 

Eleanor stooped down and gathered a cluster of violets, and 
began daintily arranging them against their own broad leaves. 

“And this Fraulein, she is no Englanderin,” declared the 
old man — “ she is real German ! ” 

“ Of course, Hans ! ” cried Eleanor, “ Real German. 
Germany is the Vaterland to me. I have no other, and as 
for the Spring time in Germany, it is too enchanting ! ” and she 
seized Katchen by the arm and ran away down the path 
singing one of Peter Cornelius’s entrancing little German 
songs : 

“ Scented Spring, 

Bear your odours on your wing. 

Fragrant violets with you bring. 

In your song 

To the merry flower throng, 

Praise the violets loud and long. 

Woodlands green, 

Where the loveliest flowers are seen 

Let the violets be your Queen ! ” # 

“ Oh, Katchen,” she cried, after she had flung the last w^ord 
into the air, “why does the scent of a little flower draw the 
heart out so ? ” 

“ That is a question which even the dear Goethe, Schiller, or 
Heinrich Heine could never have answered, mein Schatz 1 ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


Si 


CHAPTER VII 

“ Kinder, Kinder ! ” called a voice from above. “ Kinder ! 
Helenchen, Katchen, the post man ! ” 

The girls turned to see Frau von Hervart standing on the 
terrace which ran along the back of the house. 

“We come, mother dear,” called Katchen, and the girls 
rose from the little stone seat and came up the garden through 
an avenue of lilac, hawthorn, and laburnum, out on to the 
green lawn which stretched between the lower garden and the 
terrace. 

“ Always something for you, Katchen,” said Eleanor. “ Well, 
it is a blessing that I am not troubled with endless letters. 
My correspondence is yet to be ! ” 

“ Helenchen, mein Kind, here are two letters for thee ! ” 
said Frau von Hervart. 

Eleanor’s face of wonder was a study as she took'the letters, 
making the slight deferential curtsey as became the younger to 
the older lady. 

“ And none for me, mother?” asked Katchen. 

“ Nothing for thee ; but I hear that thy father returns 
to-morrow. The manoeuvres are over, I am thankful to say.” 

Eleanor took her letters and examined them mechanically. 
Letters for her from England ! 

“ What can they be, Katchen ? ” she asked. “ I know 
no one in England ! I have not had a letter from England 
in all my life. My mother used to have them sometimes, 
but ” 

“ Well, my child, the simplest thing to do will be to open 
them ! ” said the lady kindly. “ Katchen, run away, child, and 
don’t trouble her ! ” 

“You speak as though you thought they contained bad 
news ! ” said Eleanor, turning her deep-blue eyes anxiously on 
Frau von Hervart. 

“ No, no, my dear, but personally I always like to read my 
letters to myself.” 


52 


T BA CCA QUEEN 

“ I will read these with you, if I may ? ” replied Eleanor, as 
Katchen, taking the hint, ran off with an excuse to talk to the 
gardener. 

The first letter she opened was in a plain business envelope 
addressed in a clerk’s hand, with the words “ Glyn & Son, 
Farbiggin ” on the flap. 

“ Glyn & Son ! I can’t imagine — ” began Eleanor again. 

“ Open it, child ! ” said her companion again, for she noticed 
the nervous flush mounting high on the girl’s face. 

Eleanor broke the letter open. “ I shall read it out loud 
just as it comes, dear Frau von Hervart, if I may ? ” 

Frau von Hervart drew her on to the seat, and heard as 
follows : — 


“High Street, Farbiggin, 

“ May 1 8, 18 — 

“ Miss Eleanor Hilliard. 

“ Madam, — I write to inform you, that owing to the death of 
your paternal grandfather, I have been left sole trustee and 
executor of the estate, and guardian of yourself until you attain 
the age of twenty-one years. 

“ I understand that the name you are at present known by is 
not your real name, but is one that was professionally adopted 
by your parents. 

“On reaching your majority you will assume to a large extent 
the control over your property, which stands at the present 
value of some ;£ 100,000. I am not informed as to whether 
you are aware of your real name, but it is Carradus — Eleanor 
Carradus. Your grandfather left directions that you should 
live with my daughter and myself for the present, and I shall 
therefore be glad to hear when you can make it convenient to 
take up your residence in England. 

“ I have pleasure in enclosing a cheque for ^50, for any 
immediate needs you may have, and though the Will is not yet 
proved, I shall be glad to forward any reasonable sum you may 
further require. 

“I have asked my daughter to write to you by this mail, 


T BACCA QUEEN 53 

and we can correspond further on plans when I have heard 
from you. 

“ I remain, madam, yours faithfully, 

“ George Glyn.” 

“ My dear child ! ” ejaculated Frau von Hervart. 

Eleanor turned the letter over quietly and re-read it to 
herself. When she had finished, she turned her eyes, which 
were full of strained perplexity, on her companion and said 
simply — 

“ Oh, Frau von Hervart, what must I do ? ” 

The lady lifted up the other letter from Eleanor’s knee. 
“ Perhaps, child, you will learn more from this second letter if 
you open it.” 

The girl opened the thick square envelope and again read 
aloud. 

“The Abbey, Farbiggin. 

“ My dear Miss Hilliard, — You will, I am sure, be 
greatly surprised to receive a letter from such a complete 
stranger as I am, but my father’s letter will have explained 
much to you. 

“ I am Mr. Glyn’s invalid daughter and his housekeeper, and 
I hasten to assure you of the warm welcome you will receive 
in our house. You must, I am sure, feel very reluctant indeed 
to leave your German surroundings in order to come amongst 
so many new faces, but all I can say to this is that we shall do 
everything in our power to make you feel happy and at home 
with us. 

“ I am not quite such a stranger as you will imagine, because 
I remember, when a girl at the Weimar School, seeing your 
mother, who was most kind to me. I also remember you 
yourself as a little girl of about seven years old. 

“ I shall only further add that the pleasure to me personally 
of being able to talk over my happy Weimar experiences with 
one who must know the dear place and the dear language so 
well, will indeed be very great. 

“ Believe me, yours most sincerely, 

“ Mary Glyn.” 


54 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ A nice, kind, considerate letter ! ” remarked Frau von 
Hervart, as Eleanor made no remark. 

“ Is it ? ” she replied dully ; then she started suddenly to her 
feet. “ Frau von Hervart, I think that you must excuse 
me— I would like to go away by myself for a little ! ” 

“ Do, dear child, and I pray dem lieben Gott to help thee to 
come to a wise and right decision.” 

“ I do not feel at all wise and right now ! ” she said, in a 
suppressed voice. “ Please tell Katchen, Gnadige Frau.” 

Eleanor went down the road with a firm, brisk step. She 
knew well where she was going. “ If I go to my room,” she 
argued to herself, “ I shall cry, cry — I shall rage — I shall ‘ groll, r 
but here outside I cannot, stiffe Englanderin as I am. Oh no, 
the English — they have no Gefiihl ! ” 

She hurried on down the road, then along a narrow street, 
and up a steep bit of road through a little copse wood. She 
was alone at last, and sitting down on a bank she drew out the 
letters and re-read them, and then bent her mind to thinking 
the matter out. 

The more, however, she considered the circumstances, the 
angrier she grew. ^100,000 to come to her now — now when 
she had no use for it! What did she want with ^100,000 
when all that life held dear was gone ? Oh, the long, strained 
agony of the days just past when money, money, money was 
her one desire ! Even as a little girl she had realised how 
circumstances were gradually changing, as ill-health laid hands 
on one parent after the other. How shocked she had been to 
find her own mother in an agony of tears because she could 
not give the father all he needed. And then came those later 
days, when the money was still scanty — when she herself had 
thought that she would sweep the very streets if she could 
only make a little to add to the comfort of the dying mother. 
Very, very seldom a letter came from England ; how her 
mother used to watch for the English post that never came ! 
When dying, she had told her daughter that she and her father 
had been cast off by their English parents for no fault but the 
Music and the Love, and she had urged upon the child that 


55 


T BACCA QUEEN 

henceforward she must be a German girl, and forget that she 
was ever English, for both her grandparents were dead ; and 
her mother had cried and said that the English were cold and 
hard, and then she cried that she loved them all — loved them 
with all her heart, and that she could not help it ! Why, the 
very field in which she was sitting was a favourite resort of her 
mother, and that was why she had come there. She used to 
tell the girl that the hay reminded her of her old home in 
Moorshire, and she would gather armfuls of buttercups, dog 
daisies, red sorrel and grasses and carry them home to beautify 
the little room, as tenderly as if she were carrying a piece of 
her own native land. 

“Why is it,” argued the girl, “that life is so hard and 
contradictory ? Why should my father and mother have 
broken their hearts over what it will break my heart to have ? 
Oh, I can’t, I can’t — I can’t leave Germany ! Why should I ? 
What has this England done for me ? Oh, mother, mother ! 
If you could take the money ! If I could give it to you now, 
now, and make you happy ! ” And the girl gave a gasping 
sob, and buried her face in her hands. The whole point of 
view of her life had changed. Nothing could ever be the 
same any more. Even her joy in the independence of her 
post at the Musik Schule had vanished. Certainly for a 
moment it came to her as a pleasant thought, and the next 
she realised that the need had all gone, the object for which 
she had worked was no longer there, was in fact a mere 
will-o’-the-wisp! Good God! ^100,000 — why, that was 
two million marks ! and she and her mother had often wanted 
for a five-mark piece. No, she would not have it. She 
would write back and say that they could keep it, that she 
would stay in Germany. Why not? No one cared for her 
in England so far; why should her life be controlled by a mere 
lawyer’s letter? Glyn? A disagreeable, hard name! A 
reaction from the first extreme pain to a more simple 
petulance was setting in. 

Eleanor brushed back her hair from her face, and, 
stamping her foot, remarked out loud, “No, I have quite 


56 T BACCA QUEEN 

decided that I won’t go, and no one on this earth shall 
make me ! ” 

“ Aber liebes Fraulein ! ” She turned round suddenly to 
find the amazed Herr Professor standing close behind her. 
He had been out for a little walk, and coming through the 
wood had heard the English expression and recognised the 
golden head. 

Herr Professor understood English, but he never acknow- 
ledged to doing so, and he made a rule never to speak it 
under any circumstances — speaking English was against his 
principles. 

As he looked at Eleanor he was puzzled. Was she merely 
angry, or in real trouble? He was a kind-hearted old man 
and he liked — nay, loved this girl, whom he had known 
ever since her proud parents had first shown him their 
golden-haired darling. He felt a true, fatherly interest in 
her, and had at times considered himself quite justified in 
exercising something like parental control over this child 
of sudden impulse. Knowing her, however, as well as he 
did, he was still puzzled. Was this the usual petulance, or 
was it something more serious? He knew that there were 
depths in the girl’s nature. He had caught glimpses of 
such before now. He well remembered only ten months 
before the slight pale figure in deep mourning on her way 
from the Friedhof. The expression of miserable, almost 
reckless woe had haunted him for long. Oh yes, and even 
in the old music-room he had found out something. In 
the, music she had betrayed herself. 

Eleanor looked up, and meeting the puzzled expression on 
his face, an irrepressible laugh broke from her, even though 
the blue eyes which looked at him were brimming with unshed 
tears. The old man felt relieved, and began forthwith to 
scold, but she cut him short and said in fluent German, 
“No, no, Herr Professor, I am going to be as angry as 
ever I like. Oh, I am angry, I am indeed. Some wretched 
grandfather in England has died and left me 100,000. 
Oh, it is outrageous ! ” 


57 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ I congratulate you, child. But ach, this is glorious news ! ” 

Eleanor turned on him. “ Glorious ! Congratulate ! Do 
you think it a cause for congratulation that I have to go away 
from the dear old Germany to live in England, always in 
England ! ” 

“ But you did not mention that you were to live in Eng- 
land,” expostulated the Professor ; “ you only mentioned 
about the money ! ” 

“Why, that is the main thing!” she returned tempestuously. 
“^100,000 to come to me just when my mother is dead — 
dead of want and anxiety and heart-break! ^100,000 to 
make me independent when my dear kind German friends 
have done it for me without the aid of any of this miserable 
English gold ! ” 

“ Aber ruhig — ruhig Kind ! Let us consider ! ” 

He was rapidly considering a sorrow which w^as stealing 
into his own heart, at the thought of the loss of this child 
companion : for he was a lonely old man, whose fierce temper 
had alienated him from many. 

“ I won’t be ruhig ! I hate your ruhig, ruhig ; I will be 
wild. I suppose I am what they call an heiress now ! Du 
liebe Gott ! An heiress with a broken heart ! ” 

Herr Meyer did just wonder whether utterly broken-hearted 
persons stormed quite so furiously, or, for the matter of that, 
looked quite so charming when doing it. Still, the passion of 
the girl was real, even though she was at the moment mis- 
calculating the happiness which youth and wealth bring. 

“Nun, nun,” said the Professor. “It will become better. 
You will think it over and will be thankful that you have all 
these riches ! ” 

“ Thankful ! ” cried the girl, “ thankful ! There was a time 
when I would have been thankful — but now ! Oh, dear Herr 
Professor, think now, think of that last concert when I dressed 
my mother to play, to play for a few miserable marks — marks 
to pay for the doctor’s medicine and the doctor’s fees. Ach ! 
I see you remember. How she played that night for the last 
time in the concert-room, and how the soloist smiled and 
5 


58 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


bowed, and my mother Oh ! Herr Meyer, you were 

kind, kind that night when you helped us home ! If even 

then the postman had come ! — but he never came ” And 

Eleanor began to sob miserably. 

Herr Meyer felt called upon to exercise some authority. 
He drew her hand through his arm. “Come, Kind, you 
are tired out. Come, we will go home together now. There, 
there, that is better,” as Eleanor tried to look up gratefully. 
“ It is hard for thee, Kindchen, hard, but der liebe Gott He 
has thee in His charge thou knowest ! ” 

Eleanor did not feel that der liebe Gott was any particular 
support just then, but the man’s warm, solicitous affection 
soothed and comforted her in spite of herself. 

Without waiting further permission, the Professor walked 
off with his charge and carried on a simple kindly talk till 
they reached the Villa Alma. 

Frau von Hervart was standing in the verandah, and as the 
two came up she hurried out. 

“ Ach, Herr Professor, that is kind of you to bring Fraulein 
Hilliard home ! ” 

“ Nun, liebe Frau, I have found a weary child, and I have 
brought her back for a little rest, and then all will be well ! ” 

Eleanor had recovered herself enough to appreciate the 
kindly reticence of her companion. 

“ Oh, Frau von Hervart, I am a stupid, stupid girl ! I ought 
to ask Herr Meyer’s pardon, but just now I cannot. It feels 
to me as if I were not myself, as if I were some other person 
quite different standing out alone — quite alone in the big 
world ! ” 

“Well, well, dear child, run away now and get thee ready 
for Abendbrod. Die Katchen is already gone.” 

Eleanor held out her hand to Herr Meyer, who pressed it 
kindly in his broad palm. 

“ Come, then, as usual to-morrow, Fraulein Hilliard ! ” 

“ Oh yes, just as usual — as if all were the same for a little 
while longer, please ! ” and kissing his hand impulsively she 
left the room. 


T BACCA QUEEN 59 

Herr Meyer stayed for a few minutes, and of course discussed 
the subject of Eleanor’s future with the lady. 

As Frau von Hervart remarked, it was a very great change 
for the girl, and no wonder she was rather upset in her mind ; 
but that, of course, there was no question as to what she must 
do, for after all she had no real prospects in Germany. 

“ Ah no ! ” he responded. “ She has talent, great talent, 
but it is not for a pretty child like Miss Eleanor to hold her 
own here; if she has good English relations, she is better 
with them. And this money — this money is not nothing ! ” 

“ It seems rather odd that the girl should just have learnt 
her own name ! ” 

“ I know, I know, liebe Frau — I believe, but I am not sure, 
that the Herr Hilliard was not what these English would call 
a gentleman. I believe that Frau Hilliard’s marriage was a 
mesalliance. I had understood that he was quite of the work- 
ing classes, but now that this money comes from the father’s 
side, I know not ! I could understand if it had been from 
the mother. Die kleine Frau was a real born lady, that any 
one could see ! ” 

“ Oh yes, quite an aristocrat. I shall be sorry if our Eleanor 
is to be thrown amongst the bourgeoisie, Herr Professor ; she 
will feel it ! ” 

“But this lawyer you speak of? She is to live with him, 
and he is not with the relations.” 

“ Yes, that is so. Ach, you think ? ” 

“ I think that this lawyer has knowledge of these relations, 
and he will keep the child to himself and his daughter.” 

“The daughter wrote a charming letter. I am sure I 
should like her. She seems to have been at school in 
Weimar some years ago. Mary Glyn is her name!” 

The effect of this last remark on the Professor was electrical. 

“ Ach, Mary Glyn. Fraulein Mary ! Is it possible ? ” 

“ Why, Herr Professor ? ” 

“Ach, Frau von Hervart, she was a Schiilerin, a dear 
Schiilerin. So true, so real, with a face like a Madonna. 
She had the true music also when once I had broken her 


6o 


T BA CCA QUEEN 

from her English ways. She was shy at first. Ach, ein 
liebliches Madchen ! 

“ She called herself an invalid. I imagined quite an elderly 
personage.” 

Herr Meyer made a mental calculation. “Twenty-eight or 
twenty-nine at the most, I should say ! Invalid ? Then the 
Fraulein has had a heart-break. She was no invalid at 
Weimar! Ach, die Liebe und die MadchenV! Well, well, 
the world is very small. Adieu, liebe Frau. Send the child 
to me to-morrow, and I will inspirit her by telling her all 
about Miss Mary Glyn ! ” and the kindly old Professor bustled 
away. 


CHAPTER VIII 

Eleanor’s toilet preparations for Abendbrod progressed but 
slowly. It seemed as though even this large roomy attic, with 
its gable windows, had changed since the morning. 

What a charming room it was. So simple, yet peaceful, and 
filled with all the worldly possessions of the girl who stood 
looking at herself with a curiously critical gaze in the large 
mirror. 

The floor was of polished boarding, carpetless except for a 
couple of small rugs. The usual stove was built into one 
corner, with coloured glazed tiles. 

The bed was of wood, raised high by a mountain of feather 
quilts, and on the walls numbers of photographs and photo- 
gravures hung of masterpieces of art, while on the drawers 
and tables were innumerable photographs of school and other 
friends. On the dressing-table were two portraits only. One 
of the mother after whom she was yearning. The other was 
that of a pale, slender man of about forty. The forehead was 
broad and deep, the rather long flat cheeks and high cheek- 
bones showed the North of England type of face, and there 
was earnest resolution expressed in the mouth and chin. The 
whole countenance, in fact, gave the impression of firm purpose 


T BA CCA QUEEN 61 

and self-restraint, and any hardness was minimised by the 
kindly light which shone from the deeply set eyes, grey in 
the reality, but dark in the photograph. 

When Richard Carradus had once decided to throw over his 
old life to seek and find the music his uncultured mind yearned 
after, he was not one to go back. 

Who can say what strange mixture of Celtic, Scandinavian, 
and Saxon blood was combining to force the. young Moorshire 
life out to find a more congenial, or, rather, a more sympa- 
thetic sphere ? From the earliest boyhood the music and the 
song had called him. The mountains, the fells, the streams, 
the mists, the storms, and the dead whiteness of the snow of 
his own north country had inspired him with — he knew not 
what. 

Then he accidentally met with a young German who was 
touring in England. 

The young Herr von Stein had lost his way one bright 
autumn afternoon as he was wandering over one of the high- 
lands of Moorshire. Below him ran a rapid mountain stream, 
and across the narrow valley lay more fells and high lands in 
continual fold. He stood wondering as to which mountain 
path he should pursue in order to pierce the hills upon which 
the evening sunlight was already settled, and beyond which 
lay, as he knew, the town of Farbiggin. 

The air was still. It was early afternoon,- and the only dis- 
tinguishable sounds were from the gurgling of the stream over 
the stony bottom far below, and the regular crunch, crunch of 
the sheep around him. Suddenly the air vibrated with a clear 
ringing song, which seemed to come from just above him, and 
which the opposite hills threw back in mournful echo. 

Herr von Stein, looking round, saw Richard Carradus, young, 
stalwart, ruddy. 

“ Himmel, was fur eine Stimme 1 ” (Heavens, what a voice !) 
he said under his breath. The song was a German air, 
“ Kennst du das Land,” but he did not recognise the English 
words. 

His necessity for guidance suggested to him that he should 


62 


T BACCA QUEEN 

promptly make friends with the young singer, and before 
Richard Carradus could realise it, he was pouring forth his 
musical yearnings to this stranger, who could but half follow 
what he heard in the rough northern dialect. 

He gathered enough, however, to know that here was talent, 
possibly genius, beating itself helplessly against the prison bars 
* of circumstance ; and, being of a romantic nature himself, he 
suddenly decided to carry this young Englishman back with 
him to Germany and get him into a position in which the best 
that was in him might be produced. 

Certainly the boy had had little musical encouragement at 
home, and his sensitive soul had grown nervous, and even 
apprehensive of his father’s continual sneer. 

His little sister Maria alone had seemed in part to under- 
stand him, and she had loved to go out and listen to the 
songs he sang to her, out on the wide fells in full view of 
the distant hills : singer, listener, fells and mountains under 
one blue and white canopy. 

His mother also had been proud of her boy, and would 
boast to the neighbours of his achievements; but for the 
rest he was considered “queer,” and queerness involved 
social ostracism on The Scarth. 

Then, again, Richard Carradus knew well that he was no 
gentleman — knew that he could never hope to enter into real 
close contest with those upper Moorshire sets where some small 
amount of amateurish music was fashionable. And though 
there was in some circles the first faint glimmer of real 
musical enthusiasm he had no desire to become, even if he 
could, the pet of a snobbish county society, to be smiled at 
and patronised and admired as an artist, to be ignored on 
other social occasions. 

And so it came to pass that he decided to fly to the land of 
music, unknown to the unknown, equal to equal, to find his 
fate. 

The subtle connection in feelings between a north country 
Englishman and a German is unmistakable. The very broad- 
ness of the dialect and pronunciation of the vowels gives a 


T BACCA QUEEN 63 

homish feeling to the stranger, and, working-man as he had 
been in England, Carradus soon found that in new surround- 
ings with a new language, and an artistic atmosphere combined 
with the genial introduction given him by his young patron, 
the difference in social position sank, or became less empha- 
sised, and the kindly Germans accepted him as one of them- 
selves, putting down any slight differences to his being a 
foreigner. 

So quickly, indeed, had he raised himself by his natural 
refinement, quickness of perception, and artistic enthusiasm, 
that when first he met Beatrice Whinery at the house of a 
musical friend, the girl was not conscious of any particular 
social difference between them. 

Beatrice Whinery had come to Germany smarting with pain, 
anger, and mortification, because she had resolutely refused 
to fall in love at her father’s desire and make a match with the 
great eligible of the county, Sir Matthew Preston. 

Sir Matthew was wealthy, handsome, courteous, and solici- 
tous of the hand of the fresh young girl lately returned from 
school. But Beatrice was full of schoolgirl enthusiasms, and 
she could not, for some unknown reason, endure the man. He 
was extremely repugnant to her, though she could not explain 
why, either to her parents or to herself. 

Being of a decided character, after some wavering on 
account of extreme pressure brought to bear upon her, she 
refused him utterly, and by doing so, disappointed and an- 
gered her parents almost past reconciliation, the more so as 
her father was under pecuniary obligation to Sir Matthew. 

She was sent abroad in disgrace, and the first sight of the 
gentle, homesick English countenance stirred up all the pro- 
tective love of Richard Carradus’s nature. 

He knew well who she was — a daughter of one of the 
proudest, stiffest, most vulgarly snobbish aristocrats of Moor- 
shire. He told her who he was : the son of a working-man, 
a Farbiggin Scarthsider, a successful musician. 

A struggle betwixt pride and the love of a good man waged 
in the heart of the girl for a time, then a strongly worded letter 


64 T BACCA QUEEN 

from her father still urging the hateful match, with insolent 
threatenings, settled the matter ; and love, similarity of taste 
and temperament, together with a sense of bitter wrong, 
combined to make the girl throw in her lot with the man 
she loved for better for worse. 

And with this decision any final chance of reconciliation 
between herself and her parents was cast aside for ever, and 
when she wrote explaining that she was about to marry Mr. 
Richard Hilliard, second violin at the Berlin Philharmonic 
Hall, she had passed the Rubicon. 

She never really regretted the step, and if at times she was 
ever conscious of her own superior worldly position she never 
showed it. 

Richard Hilliard, as he wished to be called, treated his wife 
with all the romantic chivalrous adoration which had at last 
found a resting-place, and life and love were very sweet during 
those first joyous days of health and prosperity. 

And when the dark days came, and comparative wealth fled 
at the touch of ill-health, there were times when the strong 
man bitterly reproached himself for having brought trouble 
on the one he loved ; and then the spirit of the woman over- 
leaped all questionings, and with the wealth of her love she 
swept away the doubt. 

Pride was strong in both husband and wife, and no pleadings, 
no appeals for help were sent home. They had done no wrong, 
and they bravely abode by their decision, and gradually inter- 
course with England ceased. 

Had Lady Whinery lived matters might have turned out 
differently, but she died soon after her daughter’s marriage ; 
and Sir Robert Whinery was not the man to change his mind, 
and he died a ruined man in the same year as his daughter, 
cursing her for having held back when she might have saved 
him in days long past. 

As to the child Eleanor, who was born soon after Herr 
Hilliard gained a high position in the Weimar Orchestra, she 
was the light of their eyes. 

She was educated as a German, talking German and English 


T BACCA QUEEN 65 

as the fancy seized her. She had taken herself as she found 
herself, the delight of her young parents, the plaything of the 
musical circle in Weimar. 

Her quaint sayings, her impertinent retorts, her roguish 
sallies, her passionate outbreaks, even the very tosses of her 
golden head were admired and encouraged by the delighted 
Germans ; and when, one by one, her parents were taken from 
her, there were many friendly hands ready to support the 
heart-broken girl. 

But young as she was, Eleanor yearned after independence, 
and the bread of charity was bitter to her. 

It was Katchen, her friend at the Musik Schule, who had 
first suggested to her mother the pleasant arrangement which 
now existed. In return for a home, Eleanor was to teach 
Katchen English, and, in fact, to chatter English to Frau von 
Hervart and the Herr General himself. And Eleanor accepted 
the kindly plan with a heart overflowing with gratitude, knowing 
well the obligation she was under. 

And so it came to pass that the spacious attic room in 
Villa Alma became hers for the time, and all her remaining 
worldly possessions were brought into it, and it became to her, 
home. 

“ Look at yourself, Eleanor ! ” soliloquised the girl before 
the mirror. “There you are, Eleanor Hilliard, Eleanor 
Carradus ! English Miss ! German Fraulein ! — Young still. 
Beautiful? No, certainly not! Pretty? Yes, for Germany, 
but probably nothing particular in England ! Poor as a 
church mouse this morning. To-night rich, if only — There ! 
what arrant rubbish I am thinking. I will dress and be 
sensible.” 

She went to the wardrobe to select her evening blouse. 
Teing in mourning, she had no choice but white. She glanced 
at the scanty store. Not the white silk one — that she was 
keeping nice for the concert next month. The muslin would 
do for to-night. Her eye caught sight of the cheque for ^50 
which was lying on the dressing-table. Then she laughed at 
a sudden thought, and immediately afterwards stamped her 


66 


V BACCA QUEEN 

foot at herself for having had the thought. 100,000 in her 
possession, and yet here she was economising over a silk blouse ! 
Instinctive economy, however, could not be so easily set aside; 
the future was chimerical still. So she left the silk and donned 
the muslin and arranged the violets at her throat. 

Again she gazed at herself critically. 

Pink and white complexion, shapely head with the golden pile 
at the back, hands not too small, but with long musical fingers, 
busily fastening an ivory buckle round the trim waist. She 
glanced at the photograph of her mother. There was the 
same shapely head and golden hair, but the face was larger, 
longer, graver. The quaint piquancy of expression was 
lacking. 

“Dear, sweet grave Miitterchen ! ” ejaculated the girl. 

There was a knock at the door, and Eleanor called out the 
mechanical “ Herein.” 

Katchen entered, big, comfortable, cheerful. She was 
dressed in a long black skirt, and crudely coloured checked 
blouse. The blouse was collarless, and she wore a heavy gold 
circlet round her neck. 

“ Oh, Katchen ! ” cried Eleanor. “ Come and sit down a 
moment, I want to talk to you ! ” 

Katchen took the offered seat, but did not commit herself 
until she had ascertained the mood of her friend. 

“ Now, Katchen,” began Eleanor irritably, “ don’t, for 
goodness sake, sit there looking at me as if I were a creature 
in a menagerie ! I am myself as much as ever.” 

“ So I perceive,” was the simple reply. 

“ I wish you wouldn’t make all this fuss ! ” 

Katchen opened her large, light eyes wider than ever. 
“ Fuss ? What am I doing, dear Helenchen ? ” 

“Oh, I know you are not doing anything, but I call it 
fussing to sit looking at me like that. Talk, can’t you ? ” 

“ Oh, I can ! ” said Katchen slowly. “ I can of course say 
Eleanor, you are now an heiress, you are a very lucky girl. 
You are going forth on an adventure. You are going out into 
the weite^Welt to seek your fortune, and perhaps your Prince! 


T DACCA QUEEN 


6 7 


You are weary of dem alten Vaterland ! You would weiter 
— weiter ! But think, child. Das Scheiden. Scheiden thut 
weh ! ” (Separation means anguish). 

Eleanor nearly screamed — “ How dare you ! ” 

Katchen looked up in mild astonishment. “ Dare ? Oh, 
you asked me to say something, liebes Kind, and I said the 
first things that were in my mind. It is the easiest to me to 
speak just what I am thinking ! ” 

“ Then you are thinking entirely wrong ! I won’t go into 
the weite)( Welt. I have decided. I said I had decided. 
Why, I told the Herr Professor so. Can’t I do as I choose ? ” 
“ Perhaps ! ” was the imperturbable reply. “ But I shall say 
to you what these English schoolgirls are always telling each 

other. Don’t be a ‘ fool,’ child, and don’t be a ” 

“Whatf” 

“ A coward.” 

“ Katchen ! ” 

“ Ah, you may say ‘ Katchen,’ but I see a little cowardliness 
if a Madchen will not take the Schicksal (the fate, I mean) 
that the der liebe Gott sends to her ! ” 

“ If I could stay in Germany ! ” argued Eleanor. 

“ Ah, yes, like some Princessin ! How this child would 
hold her head high. How the little Weimar would not be 
able to contain her and her gold ! ” Katchen glanced at the 
cheque on the table, and arranged a stray curl on the golden 
head with her soft, plump fingers. 

Eleanor could not make up her mind whether to laugh or 
to be angry, and a decided sound from the vibrating gong 
below saved her from the difficulty. 


CHAPTER IX 

After the evening meal, which was on this occasion rather a 
silent one, Frau von Hervart suggested that they should go 
into the Musikzimmer and work industriously at some needle- 
work which was urgently wanted for a bazaar. 


68 


T BA CCA QUEEN 

“ And Helenchen can play to us after a while ! ” she added 
kindly. “ She must get used to her concert playing ! ” 

The girls fetched the three frames, and sat down to the 
beautiful silk embroidery which is done so exquisitely in 
Germany. 

Such embroidery was real needlework — needle painting in 
fact, in which there was no approach to the rough outlining 
and crude “art” colouring which passes for fancy work amongst 
the large proportion of indolent English girls. On the material 
stretched tightly over their frames, every thread was considered 
and accurately placed. 

Eleanor worked quickly and, as a rule, eagerly. 

To-night she sat quiet and busy; her fingers, one hand above 
and the other below the frame, passed the quick needle back- 
wards and forwards to each other until the little rosebuds sprang 
to life up and down the white satin 

Eleanor’s mind was full of thought too big for speech, and 
in fact she was too uncertain as to her own wishes to commit 
herself further, for she was conscious of feeling partly like 
the heroine of a romance and partly like an ordinary naughty 
child. 

She started when Frau Hervart, looking up to seek for the 
exact shade of silk she wanted, remarked, “ Eleanor, my child, 
thou knowest I shall always be glad to advise thee at any 
time.” 

“You are very kind,” was the quick reply. “But I feel 
wretched to-night, dull, resentful, dogged. Oh, I can’t go — 
I can’t ! ” 

“ I know, dear child ; but thou must see that some would 
consider thee very fortunate, and such a little thing as a change 
of residence is unimportant compared with the solid advantage 
offered ! ” 

“Little! Frau von Hervart, but it is my whole life. Do 
you not see, liebe Frau, that all my friends are here; and I love 
the music, and I know that my father ran away from the cold 
England all for the sake of music ! ” 

“ Didst thou never hear thy father’s real name before ? ” 


T BACCA QUEEN bg 

“ Yes ; my mother told me just before she died. She was 
afraid of any legal difficulty arising. But I always meant to 
try to forget it with all my might ! ” 

“ And thy mother ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, that was Whinery. My mother had, however, no 
dealings with her family ; but you know the history. I told 
you when she died the reason I would not write for help to 
England. I forget if I told you that she asked me to send 
a notice of her death to the local paper, and I did so ; but as 
both her parents are dead, I don’t suppose there is any one in 
Moorshire with the least interest in their granddaughter — or 
who even knows I exist. Do you' not see, dear Frau von 
Hervart, how horrid it would be to go and live right away 
amongst complete strangers?” 

“ Oh yes, child, I see ; but there, we will not talk any more 
about it just now. My husband will be home to-morrow, and 
he will advise thee. Come, put down the work and play us 
something.” 

If Katchen had made such a suggestion, it is probable 
that Eleanor would have bounced back into her chair with a 
“ No, indeed ! ” But a suggestion from Frau von Hervart was 
a command, and she put aside her work and went across to 
the grand piano which stood in a distant corner of the room. 

“ What would you like ? ” she asked listlessly. 

“ Anything, dear child. Thou canst give us a little 
c mcert.” 

“ Then I will fetch my notes,” and she left the room. 

“ I will light the piano lamps for her,” remarked Katchen. 
“ She is an odd little thing, Miitterchen ! ” 

“ Yes, but it will do her good to play to us. I do not think 
I quite understand her yet. How white she looks this evening ! 
It is strange that so far it has never struck her that she has no 
permanent home in Germany. She speaks as though her 
choice lay between a happy life in Germany and misery in 
England, when, poor little orphan, it was far more likely to be 
the other way And I cannot imagine how to suggest it to her 
without appearing to be unkind.” 


7o 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ Thou wilt see, mother, that she will think round to that 
very soon; and if not, then der Vater, he will put things plainly, 
to her.” 

Eleanor entered with a large quantity of music under her 
arm. “ You will require much patience ! ” and she laughed 
shyly. 

After a little preliminary turning over of the music leaves, 
Eleanor set to work — literally set to work. She played with 
a light, easy touch, but there was plenty of reserve force and 
resourceful power when needed. Sometimes with notes, oftener 
without them, she played piece after piece. 

The listeners made no remarks, but remained apparently 
absorbed in their work, though Frau von Hervart now and then 
caught herself watching intently the earnest, serious face so 
clear in the lampshine. 

Every changeful mood appeared in her choice. A melodious 
Schubert, a complicated Schumannish struggle ; a bit of clear, 
satisfactory, wholesome Bach. Then a plunge into Chopin to 
keep her fingers and her delicate musical sense well occupied. 
Beethoven ? yes, and a sonata dashed forward, and then a 
weird scrap of Wagner; now a tender Schubert impromptu, 
like a sudden calm after a tempest, with the heavy ground-swell 
surging up now and again. 

As the last soft notes crept forth, Eleanor wheeled round on 
the stool. 

“ Would you mind if I played my Concert Stiick which I 
have learned for the concert ? I want to be sure of it. I know 
it is stupid without the orchestra.” 

“ Oh, certainly ; I am sure we shall like it, though I have 
forgotten what it is.” 

“ Liszt’s arrangement of the Todtentanz ” (Death Dance). 

She found the notes, and laying them down at her side, 
began. 

Before she had played many notes of the weird strain the 
listeners looked at each other, and the room seemed filled 
quite full with an overpowering spirit of the music. 

On, on she played, as if she were heart and soul mingling 


T BACCA QUEEN 71 

with the very dance itself. She gave her hearers no respite. 
Not a touch, not a suggestion was spared them. 

Eleanor had never played quite like that before. Her face 
flushed at last, and two red spots burned on her cheeks. 

She did not even hear the door open, nor see the start which 
Frau von Hervart gave as her husband entered the room. 
She motioned him to silence, and he stood leaning against 
the door, tall, stately, unbending, with a half-smile on his lips 
as he listened. 

“ Bravo, bravo, kleine Tanserin ! ” he said in his deep, even 
voice as the music ceased. 

Eleanor started violently. 

“Why, Rupert ! and how did you arrive so soon?” cried his 
wife ; and Katchen rushed forward. 

“Ah, it was unexpected luck. I found I could get away, 
and it is probable that the magic of the music carried me 
along also ! ” He laughed, and held out his hand cordially to 
Eleanor. 

“ Die Kleine looks tired this evening. I think that das 
Todtentanzen is not good for such fairy fingers ! ” 

“ I am not tired, Herr General,” said Eleanor, bringing 
herself back sharply to the present. “ I have only been 
practising, and dear Frau von Hervart and Katchen have been 
most patient ! ” 

But the flush still burned steadily, and in a few minutes 
Frau von Hervart ordered the two girls away to bed, with 
strict injunctions not to talk any more but to go each to her 
own room. 

On the following day Eleanor held two conversations which 
caused her to come to a decision with regard to her future 
plans. 

The first was with Herr Professor Meyer. 

She went to the Music Schule in rather a subdued if not 
shy frame of mind, and gave several lessons to young students, 
who remarked to each other afterwards that Fraulein Hilliard 
was very unreasonable and dull this morning. 

During the last hour of the morning she had arranged to 


72 


T BACCA QUEEN 


go through some concert music with Herr Professor Meyer. At 
the appointed time she entered his private room, made her 
accustomed Schiilerin curtsey, and greeted him with a 
pleasant “Guten Morgen,” hoping earnestly that no reference 
would be made by him to anything that had happened the day 
before. 

She played simple unconsciousness so well, that for a 
moment the Herr Professor, with yesterday fresh in his mind, 
was a little nonplussed. 

He let her, however, play off a show piece on Schubert’s 
Forelle, and stopped her several times abruptly with instructive 
remarks; and the more blissfully unconscious Eleanor appeared, 
and the more cheerfully she followed out his directions, the 
harder and more particular he grew. 

In an ordinary way he would have been quite satisfied, for 
she was playing extremely well, but this morning he was hyper- 
critical, and Eleanor’s face grew worried with the continuous 
interruption for such slight reasons. At last, after a second 
repetition of a certain passage which still did not please him, 
he asked for the “ Noten,” for Eleanor was playing, as she 
usually did, by heart. 

“ I am sorry, Herr Professor, but I have forgotten to bring 
them.” 

“ But you know I always expect you to bring the noten.” 

“Oh yes, I know; and, as I say, I am sorry ! ” 

She looked up at him quietly, as if she ^dared him to 
continue the subject. But by doing so she lost her primary 
desire. 

He rose impatiently and paced the room. 

“ Ah, well, Eraulein, then we will have no more music for 
the present ; you will tell me instead when you propose to 
leave us ? ” 

Eleanor’s face crimsoned. 

“Shall we not go through the Concert Stuck? I played it 
last night quite abominably. I have the notes ! ” 

“ Afterwards we have the time ; but tell me — you go to 
England when ? ” 


73 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ I don’t know ! I don’t even care ! ” 

“Aber Fraulein ! ” 

“ Oh, do let us go on with the music ! ” she urged 
desperately. 

Herr Meyer looked at her calmly ; he was determined to say 
his say, and her present mood was one he thoroughly under- 
stood and rather enjoyed. 

“Yes, after one little word from the old man! See you now, 
you are a young girl out alone in Germany — yes child, alone, 
for I wonder if you understand that the kind friends you are 
now with could not perhaps — I mean you have no claim, 
and ” 

The flush left the rounded cheeks, suddenly. 

“ Go on, Herr Professor — please go on, do not stop ! ” 

“Ach, child, you have spirit, you understand, I am sure 


“ Oh yes ! I understand quite well. You would tell me 
what I have been thinking — thinking all the night, and every 
bit of this morning. Of course I have no claim. No claim 
on any one in the wide world ! It is nice of you to explain it 
all so beautifully to me ! ” 

There was an ominous trembling about the little mouth, 
and she took up some music and began to play.' 

But the Professor laid his hand on her arm. 

“ No, Fraulein, we will finish ! You are angry — oh yes you 
are, you need not shake your head ; but liebes Kind, it is 
better that thou shouldest take what der liebe Gott sends, 
even though there is pain. Ach, Kind, thou canst not know 
that the pain is not to thee alone in this thing ” 

Eleanor looked up at a certain uncertainty in the last words. 
Nothing strung her up so quickly as the sight of pain in 
another. The Professor’s evident weakness brought forward 
her woman’s strength in a moment. 

It was her turn to lay her hand on his arm. 

“Dear Herr Professor, das Leben is full of pain. Let us 
not speak of it longer. This child will do right if you give 
her time ! Now let us play, shall we?” 

6 


74 T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Play then ! ” he agreed, and she played until the end of 
the hour. 

As she was leaving, he told her of Mary Glyn, endeavouring 
to inspirit her into contentedness; but here Eleanor grew 
perverse again. 

“ I cannot imagine that an invalid Englishwoman will be 
particularly inspiring ! ” she argued. 

“ Still, das Fraulein is also an Englishwoman ! ” suggested 
the Professor, with a half smile. 

Eleanor made him a sweeping German curtsey and with- 
drew, leaving him murmuring to himself, “ Aber was fiir ein 
Madchen.” 

The other conversation was with Herr von Hervart. 

Eleanor held the General in awe, and when he intimated 
that he would like a few words with her, she felt that there 
was nothing for it but to have them. 

Herr von Hervart was extremely kind-hearted, and had 
received the girl into his household with real pleasure, treating 
her with an almost petting familiarity ; and the many con- 
versations in English with his girl teacher had often resolved 
themselves into regular sparring matches which Frau von Hervart 
and Katchen enjoyed with keen amusement. 

Still, he was used to being obeyed by his men, his wife, and 
his daughter, and Eleanor also was conscious of the intangible 
power. 

“So, child, then you have had letters from England — 
important letters ? ” 

“ Yes, Herr General.” 

“ May I see them ? ” 

Eleanor passed them to him silently, and watched his face 
as he read them. 

“ I see. Of course there is no question as to your 
action.” 

Eleanor made no remark. 

“I mean” — looking through the lawyer’s letters again — “the 
money is left to you — that is settled. Your guardian is 
appointed. That also is settled. Your guardian directs you to 


T BACCA QUEEN 75 

come to England. There is nothing for you to decide but 
the date ! ” 

Eleanor moved restlessly in her seat. Why could she not 
push off this fate that was enveloping her ? 

“ Now, child,” he continued calmly, “ my wife has told me 
that you have been a little ‘ aufgeregt,’ excited you would say, 
and there has been some mutiny in your heart. But this is all 
nonsense : you and Frau von Hervart can arrange the dates — 
that is comparatively unimportant, but it remains for you to 
write a nice letter to the lawyer, which you will show to me, 
so that I consider whether it is all in order.” 

“ Oh, of course if Frau von Hervart would rather I left 
here, it is quite right ! ” began Eleanor very quickly, fearing 
that she might be stopped. 

She was stopped, for the General came up and looked down 
at her sharply. 

“Nonsense, more nonsense! — as if any one wished to get rid 
of you. But this matter is irrevocable. It is fixed. Now not 
another word ! Why, little one,” he said kindly, as he saw the 
serious expression, “ thou art quite a rich woman now. Who 
knows what the future has in store for thee ! Come, be 
cheerful ! thou knowest well how welcome thou wilt always be — 
why, die Katchen could never bear to be parted from thee for 
long. Here, take the letters, child, and answer them quickly : 
we must make thee into a business woman now ! ” 

Eleanor rose. 

“ Ah yes, child, and where is that cheque ? Ach, thou dost 
not know thyself yet. Bring it to me and thou shalt have thy 
thousand marks to play with. A thousand marks will stop thy 
dreaming ! ” 

Eleanor could not help laughing. 

“ Oh, Herr General, don’t ! ” 

“ Oh yes, Fraulein Hilliard, I will. Now do as thou art 
told, and all will be well ! ” 


76 


T BACCA QUEEN 


CHAPTER X 

The new Town Hall bells of Farbiggin were clanging out the 
tune of “ Oh dear, what can the matter be ! ” with a harsh, 
penetrating sound, which stopped for the moment the business 
in the shops near at hand, and made new-comers in the 
streets wonder what strange monsters had been turned loose 
upon this harmless little town. 

Clang, clang discordantly, tunelessly, rang the bells. As 
the tune stopped the stranger rejoiced, but the inhabitant 
knew well that the pause was but a momentary respite from 
the torture. Yet again the notes rang forth, once again the 
pause, and then a third time — and at last peace for three 
hours. 

But the bells had been a gift, and though day after day they 
drowned the musical chimes of the old parish church, and 
eighteen times in one day played the same tune, in their 
unique jerkiness, fifty-two times in the year, the inhabitants 
were first pleased, then put up With the nuisance stolidly and 
grumbled. 

Only on festivals, when her Gracious Majesty, or his Royal 
Highness, or his Worship the Mayor required special honour, 
outward dissatisfaction again became acute, for then the 
clanging went on for a full hour three times in the day. The 
effect on the brains of the hearers was, as Rob would say 
irritably, “ Like baby playing the piano with one finger, or 
like the piano tuner at the schoolroom piano.” 

To the young people in the tobacco factory, the bells 
brought nothing but cheer. To them they sounded the 
release — release from the strong smell of tobacco and snuff, 
to the light and fun of the town outside. At the first sound, 
the streets were crowded with boys and girls hurrying along 
homeward. Many of the faces looked worn and prematurely 
old, but they showed no lack of eager interest in life. 

Pay was low in the tobacco shop, and the work was in some 
branches distasteful, so the better class of workers generally 


77 


T BACCA QUEEN 

made for the other factories, and so it came to pass that the 
’bacca lads and lasses were looked down upon by the others 
— for there are unfathomable grades in social position even 
amongst factory hands. 

Amongst the first to rush out were some eager-faced lads. 

“ Coom on, you lads ! Let’s off. I’se in a girt hurry ; my 
mother hes tatie pie to-day,” cried a slender, pinched-looking 
lad of some twelve years, who’s real name was Dicky Dixon, 
but whose “ byname ” by which he was usually called was 
“Rat.” 

“ Ger out, then, to thy tatie pie, Rat,” retorted a tall, sallow 
youth named Ben Sinkinson. He spoke bitterly, for he 
recognised that weak tea, and bread and butter was the most 
he could expect. 

“ Ger out of t’ road, lads ! ” called a strong, cheerful voice. 
“ What ! Farbiggin streets wasn’t med joost for you lot to tramp 
in ! ” 

“ A’ reet ! ’Bacca Queen ! ” retorted Dicky, “ Lads, lads, 
room, room for her Majesty ! God save the Queen ! ” 

Nell Carradus laughed. “Eh, Dick lad, hurry off, thy pie is 
coolin’. Hark, them auld tin trays is stopped, and it’s time ! ” 

The bells were a particular torment to Nell. The discor- 
dant irregularity of the tunes got on her nerves. 

“ Ay, Nell, we ken as thoo ’s turbel keen on them bells ! ” 
remarked Ben. 

“What does thoo kna’ aboot what I’se keen on, Ben 
Sinkinson ! ” was the instant reply. 

“ Noo, Nell lass, I ken what thoo likes,” and Ben went up 
closer to the girl. “ Will ta coom to-neet ? ” he said, in a low 
voice. 

“ No, I waint ! ” she replied scornfully ; “ off with tha and 
pick thisell oot another lass ! ” 

There was a burst of merriment at Ben’s discomfiture. Nell 
had had “ lads ” to choose from almost ever since she could 
speak, and the ambition of many a factory hand was to get a 
chance with the ’Bacca Queen. 

Sometimes she would, and sometimes she wouldn’t. They 


78 T BACCA QUEEN 

never could tell, and there was always, therefore, a delightful 
risk in the venture. 

“Wha will ta hev, Nell darlin’ ?” said Dick cheekily. 
“ Coom wi’ me ! ” 

The thin, delicate-looking boy stared roguishly up into Nell’s 
face. 

She looked almost compassionately down at the boy, as a 
great mastiff might look at a tender puppy. 

“A ’reet, Dicky; I’se hev thee to-neet ! ” she said unex- 
pectedly. Then she gave a glance at the group round her, 
“ These girt uns may suit thersells wi’ t’ other lasses ! ,r 

The boy looked up into Nell’s proud, handsome face eagerly. 

“Eh, Nell, does ta mean it? Eh, but thoo is bonny ! ” he 
added almost involuntarily. 

“ Ger oot ! ” she laughed and pushed past him, and walked 
off up the street followed by several others. 

“ When do they bury thy grandfather, Nell ? ” asked a 
heavy-faced girl named Jane Ann Martin. 

“ Setterda’ efternoon. What for ? ” 

“ Oh, I nobbut just wanted to kna’ ! ” 

“Aye, thoo’s aulus intull ivery thing! Happen there is 
summut else I could tell tha ? ” 

“Well,” began the questioner doubtfully, for she was not 
quite sure regarding the last remark, “ theer’s a deal as wants 
to kna’ whether any fortune is coming to tha ! ” Then as she saw 
Nell’s face darkening, she added hastily, “Theer’s bets on it, 
thoo knas, Nell ! ” The boys behind heard the question and 
pressed forward anxiously. 

Nell turned in fierce displeasure. “ Jane Ann Martin, tak’ 
thy enquiries somewhere else, thoo pryin’ beggar. Thoo’ll 
coom tuli a bad end wi’ all thy enquiries ! ” 

“ Ah, thank tha ; then he hesn’t left tha anythin’ ! ” said the 
girl rudely. “ Eh, lads, Nell Carradus, or whativer she calls 
hersell, ull be a beggar lass till t’ finish ! ” 

Nell’s face flamed at the insinuation regarding her birth, 
and the boys all laughed. They liked to see Nell flare up ; it 
was rare sport. 


T BACCA QUEEN 79 

Ben muttered under his breath, “ Eye, she’s nobbut a 
mongrel efter a’, isn’t Nell ! ” 

But Nell saw the eager looks, and understood their anxiety 
for a scene. 

“ What are you a’ lookin’ at ? ” she asked calmly, and she 
turned round and stared at first one and then another ot the 
group. “ Was it me you a’ wanted to see ? ” 

She knew her power, and even in the old working dress, the 
tall, handsome dark-eyed girl, with the regular features, and 
the masses of soft brown hair coiled round and round the 
shapely head, bowed the group before her strong beauty. 

Young Arthur Calthwaite, J.P., riding his thoroughbred 
with a careless, easy seat, passed the group and noticed the 
girl. He turned on his saddle and looked back at her, and 
as he rode forward he swore to himself that he would look her 
up some time or other. 

At the moment he was rather busy with Lady Margaret 
Temple. This girl would keep. 

And John Fleming, young assistant florist, passed about the 
same time and looked at the girl, who honoured him with an 
offhand nod as she was turning up a narrow dirty yard with 
houses on each side, which led from the main street up into 
The Scarth. 

In a few minutes she turned in at a narrow entry, and 
opened a door on the left hand. Through this door was 
Nell’s home. 

Maria Carradus had already set out the meal. On a not 
too clean cloth were a few plates and cups and saucers, a loat 
of bread, a pound of butter to cut at, a dish of potatoes, a 
half- empty pot of jam, and of course tea. 

The fire was bright and the grate well polished, and the 
room had a comfortable air of cleanliness, which was due 
rather to Nell’s energies at night than to any efforts of her 
indolent mother. 

To-day Maria was full of talk respecting the coming funeral. 
She was a weak, frivolous-minded woman. Foolish enough — 
yet this same foolishness was of that quick, calculating kind 


8o 


T BACCA QUEEN 


which kept her continuously on the look out for idle, easy- 
going means of benefiting herself. 

Maria could never take trouble over anything but scheming 
and gossiping. Her house was of ill-repute even for The' 
Scarth, and the “ goings on ” there were matters of common 
gossip. 

What attraction there was in this weak, idle, slovenly 
woman it would be hard to determine, but she managed 
somehow to hold her court like any professional beauty, and 
she counted her triumphs with pitiful pride. 

Years ago a chance for life happiness was written large on 
the bright, hearty face, but the woman had fallen, fallen, and 
year by year the marks of vice burnt their strange unmis- 
takable brands on her countenance, and the drink was rapidly 
completing the wreck. 

Nell had often and often considered the question of leavirtg 
home, but without any definite results. Perhaps if the truth 
were known, certain small results of her mother’s sins in the 
shape of the three younger children of the household had had 
some influence on her decision. 

Though herself reckless, high-spirited, and troublesome, 
she had scornfully refused to be any party to her mother’s 
misdeeds. 

Well known as Maria Carradus was, and large as was Nell’s 
own following of love-lorn lads, the honour of the ’Bacca 
Queen was in the main unchallenged; in fact some of the 
lower spirits were greatly annoyed that such a girl with such a 
mother should dare to “ keep hersell oop.” 

But though Nell had romped and quarrelled and laughed 
with nearly every lad in the district, and had staked her 
reputation for repartee against every wit, man, woman and 
child, on The Scarth, she still remained unique and unconquer- 
able. 

And though there were certain spiteful souls, mostly women, 
who would suggest that Nell Carradus was no better than she 
should be, others as steadily refuted the insinuations, and 
some into whose houses Nell had gone in times of sickness 


T BACCA QUEEN 81 

as a veritable angel of comfort were the most eager in her 
defence. 

Weakness and sickness rode victorious over Nell’s heart; 
she seemed as though she were powerless under their influence, 
and at their approach away went the rough dare-devil spirit, 
and a tenderness and reposeful gentleness took its place. 
When wanted she came, and when not wanted she stayed 
away, treating those whom she had been all in all to for the 
moment, with careless indifference when no longer wanted. 
When the need returned she was ready, and many a night’s 
rest was lost by Nell as she took the place of some worn-out 
mother or worried daughter. 

Even when quite a child she had been welcomed as a 
sick nurse, and Dr. Maddison well remembered the first time 
he came across her. He was visiting a child patient whom he 
expected to find full of excited irritation, and was greatly 
surprised to find peace reigning and a rough little girl seated 
at the bedside bathing the fever-heated forehead with regular, 
delicate touch. “ I’se gitten Nell ! ” said the child faintly, 
as if that explained all. Often after that the doctor came 
across “ Nell’s work,” and lately when sorely perplexed he had 
himself urged on patients to seek her aid. 

It was no use his asking her himself, for she would never 
have stirred for him. 

“ Eh, doctor, yon Carradus lass is a caution,” said old 
Betsy Hutton, to whom he made some suggestion as to 
getting Nell for the night. “ I’se best send our file un to exe 
her, for she waint coom for brass.” 

No, Nell never took pay, for that would have quite spoiled 
the delight. 

So there were many grateful hearts who refused to listen 
to tales of Nell. 

“Eh, Nell, I is bothered whar to git t’ mournin’!” said 
her mother as she poured out the tea. 

“Mournin’, mother? What, thoo’ll niver bother aboot 
mourni 1’ fer him as is nowt tull tha ! ” 

“He was my father ! ” 


02 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ Eye, thy father, as died without a word for tha.” 

“ Eye, but what would t’ neighbours think ! ” 

“ Let them think. They are aulus thinkin’; they’ve nowt 
else to do seemin’ly ! ” 

“ Now Nell,” expostulated the woman weakly, “ surely I may 
ger a bit of black for my awn father ? Besides, happen he’s 
left us summut. Auld Geordie Glyn was theer joost afore 
he died ! ” 

“ Rubbish, mother ! ” retorted Nell. “ He was done wi’ tha 
long enough sen. Thoo’ll hev to tek’ thy bed, as thoo’se med 
it ! That’s in t’ Bible, I believe ! ” and the girl laughed 
hardly. 

“ Well, I’se sure I’ve aulus tried to do well by tha, Nell ! ” 
Nell glanced at her frock, her heavy clogs, her own get-up, 
and that of the three children who were squabbling on the 
floor over some bread and treacle. 

“ Hes ta, mother ? Then thy well isn’t mitch ! ” and again 
the hard laugh rang out through the room. 

“ Thoo’s handsome anyway, Nell ! Handsome like thy ” 

“ Damn ! ” interrupted the girl suddenly, and the children 
looked up, and little Bobby whispered promptly to his sisters, 
“Nell said a bad word, and I shall and a’ ! ” 

“ Well, thoo is, Nell, and we are poor enough, God knas. 
Anyway, I don’t know whar to look for a bite and sup for 
you a’ ! I do my best, and if thoo wod nobbut help a bit ! ” 
and the woman looked admiringly at her daughter with the 
eye of a connoiseur. “Why, Nell, thoo could get anythin’ 
thoo wanted, anythin’ ! I was niver as handsome as thee, 

niver, and yet when Sir Matthew ” 

The girl rose. 

“ Mother, I tell tha I waint hev it. If thoo dare to say 
yon devil’s name again, I’ll — Good God, what waint I do ! ” 
The woman stopped half frightened, and said conciliatingly, 
“ A’ reet, lass, niver heed. Here, hev another cup o’ tea. 
I was careful to mek it fresh as thoo likes it ! ” 

There was a quiet knock at the door, and one of the 
children called out carelessly “ Coom in!” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


83 


John Fleming half entered the room. 

“ Hullo ! ” said Nell shortly, and she went out into the 
little passage and closed the door. “ Well, what does ta want, 
my lad ! ” 

“ I called to ask you if you would come for a turn to-night, 
Nell ? ” he answered, and there was a shade of anxiety on his 
face. 

“ Naa, I waint ! I’se promised another lad.” 

“ Oh, Nell, not ” 

“ Niver heed wha it is. He’s a nice decent feller, and he 
treats ma respectful ! ” and Nell laughed charmingly up into 
the young man’s disappointed face. 

“ All right,” said he calmly ; “ then good-day, Nell — here’s 
a beauty I’ve brought you.” 

Nell took the exquisite Marshal Neil rose from his hand, 
and smelled its fragrance with a delight she could not disguise. 
Then she put it against her dingy frock and laughed at the 
contrast. 

“ Look, Jack ! A grand ornament for a ’Bafcca lass ! ” 

“ Queen,” he corrected. 

“ Well, Queen then, if thoo’s a mind ! ” 

“ Then you’ll come to-night ? ” 

“ Naa, I waint, so thoo knas. I’se promised, and I wadn’t 
disappoint t’ lad I’se promised for a’ t’ warld, Jack Fleming ! ” 

He turned away with an upward nod of his head as he again 
said, “ All right then ! ” 

“ If thoo wants thy rose back, thoo can hev it ! ” said Nell 
grudgingly, for she felt it hardly honourable to take the flower 
if she refused the favour. 

“No, keep it if it’s any good to you, Nell. I don’t want 
it ! ” 

“Thoo’s a good lad, John Fleming,” she said relentingly. 
“ I’se hev it for a keepsake, look ! ” and she stuck it into 
her dull green dress. “Now be off!” 

And the young man withdrew obediently, and walked 
quickly away down the narrow yard. 


8 4 


T DACCA QUEEN 


CHAPTER XI 

On returning to work that afternoon, Dicky was consumed 
with pride and self-importance. 

“ What’s oop, Rat?” asked a small companion, who with 
Dickie was seated under a high table, picking up scraps from 
the workers above. 

“ Mind thy awn business ! ” was the retort ; then suddenly 
considering that he was in need of help he added more 
politely, “ I say, Tom, thoo couldn’t lend me 2d. could ta? 
I’se pay tha back o’ Setterda’ ! ” 

Tom looked doubtful. “I hev it, Rat lad, but I was 
wantin’ half on it mysell to-neet. What does ta want it for ? ” 

“ Why thoo sees I’d like to tek her a flower ! ” 

“Wha?” 

“Why,” whispered the boy, “ T’ Bacca Queen thoo knas, 
she’s promised me to-neet ! ” 

“Niver!” 

Tom looked out from under where they were squatting 
and could just see Nell, who was busily “ pointing ” or arranging 
the tobacco leaves in regular order for a man who was turning 
them into twist. She was laughing and talking as usual, and 
in her part of the room, at any rate, life was not dull. Then 
he looked at his companion respectfully — 

“Well, thoo can hev it!” he said, bringing out a penny 
and two halfpennies and laying them in Dicky’s outstretched 
hand. 

Dicky beamed. Here indeed was luck ! and he could 
hardly get through the afternoon, so eager was he to rush out 
to the flower-shop. 

When at last the release sounded he darted away, not, 
however, without a knowing nudge at Nell’s elbow as he pushed 
through the crowd. 

“ Reet, Dicky ! ” she whispered, as she took Sarah Jame- 
son’s arm and walked off. 

John Fleming was in the shop as the boy entered. 


V BA CCA QUEEN 


85 


“ A twopenny flower for a lady ! ” said the boy. 

“Oh,” said John — “a grown-up lady? What kind would 
she like ? ” 

“ A rose ull be t’ best ! ” said Dicky, holding out the 
coppers and pointing to a Marshal Neil rose, a companion 
flower to the one Nell had already received that day. 

“ Those roses are 3d. each ! ” 

“ Oh,” ejaculated the disappointed boy. “ I wonder if 1 
could get another penny. I kna she likes yon, she hed yan 
in her breast this efternoon, but flowers soon gets dished in t’ 
’Bacca shop ! ” 

“ Well you must make up your mind, so be quick ! ” 

“You couldn’t let ma hev it for twopence? I’d bring 
t’other penny o’ Setterda’, or I could go some errands for yer 
to-morra neet,” he said wistfully — then he added proudly, 
“ I’se engaged to-neet ! ” 

The shopman hesitated. “ Them’s joost soort Nell likes ! ” 
persisted the boy. 

“Nell?” 

“Aye, it’s Nell Carradus as is the lady ! ” and the boy held 
up his head and his bright eyes gleamed in severe contrast 
with the pale, emaciated cheeks. “ It’s her as hes promised 
ma for to-neet ! ” 

A look of mingled relief and amusement crossed John 
Fleming’s face as he looked at the child. 

“ All right, lad, you can have it for nothing, and I’ll pay 
this time,” and he put his hand into his pocket and put three- 
pence into the shop till. 

Dicky stared as he took the rose into his grimy hand. 

“ I must spend this twopence ! ” he protested. “ Here, give 
me some o’ them lilies o’ t’ valley ! ” 

John Fleming took back the rose, and added a spray or 
two of lily of the valley, together with some maidenhair fern, 
tied the stems altogether, and covered them with silver paper. 
Then he went across to a corner where some unsaleable 
flowers were lying, and picking through them came back with 
a buttonhole. 


86 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ Here, lad, there’s one for you to wear. It won’t do for you 
to go courting without a flower yourself ! ’’ 

Dicky’s pride was now quite complete. 

He had never had such a bouquet in his life before, and 
away he sped up a short cut he knew of, back home to 
tea. 

“ I waint let my mother see this lot ! ” he thought to himself, 
so he concealed them as well as he could under his scanty 
jacket, and crossing the kitchen, he made for the narrow 
staircase which led to the bedroom. 

But his mother was too sharp for him. 

“ What hes ta gitten ? ” and she pulled him back by the 
collar. 

“ Will ta shut up ! ” cried the boy. 

“ Tek’ that for thy impidence ! ” and he received a resound- 
ing box over the ear. 

Dicky was quite used to such treatment, and a few blows 
more or less were a mere detail to him. So he wriggled 
himself out of her grasp, but finding that the game was up as 
far as concealment was concerned he held up the flowers 
tauntingly. 

“ Looks ta, mother ! I’se off coortin’ ! ” 

The woman laughed a rude, harsh laugh. 

“ And whar hes ta gitten t’ brass to buy yon wi’ ? ” 

“ Never heed, mother. Thoo can smell ’em if thoo’se a 
mind, and if thoo’ll gie me my tea sharp ! ” 

The sweet scent refreshed the woman, and she laid the 
flowers gently down on the chest of drawers which served as a 
dresser. 

While tea was preparing, Dicky was very busy in the back 
kitchen. He emerged looking sleek and shining, his rough 
hair had been smoothed down with quantities of water and 
parted in the centre, and a neatly arranged curl on each side 
of the parting was plastered down on to his forehead. His 
boots were well blacked, his hands were as clean as he could 
make them, and he wore a red neckerchief in place of tie and 
collar at his throat. 


T BACCA QUEEN 87 

He delayed adding the finishing touch of his Sunday coat 
until he had had his tea. 

Mrs. Dixon laughed good-naturedly at the apparition, but 
Dicky was not in the least put out. He calmly ate his tea, 
put on his coat, arranged his own flowers in his buttonhole, 
and took up the dainty bouquet, and after a cheeky nod and 
wink to his mother, he slammed the cottage door and ran off 
to his lady-love. 

Half an hour afterwards Nell and Dicky were far removed 
from the sights and sounds of The Scarth, out and away 
wandering over the close sheep-nibbled turf of the High Fells, 
breathing the pure evening air which the south wind was 
blowing up from the distant sea. 

Higher and higher they went, and Nell forgot her eighteen 
years, and climbed and ran races with her boy companion, 
and laughed mockingly when she beat him. 

Dicky’s unusual appearance tickled her extremely. She 
could not get over it at all. 

“ Eh, Dicky, but thoo is a masher ! ” she said, as they sat 
down to rest under a bit of broken wall to eat some toffee 
which she produced in honour of the occasion. 

Dicky smiled complaisantly at himself, and rearranged his 
buttonhole. 

“ Now, Dick, let on whar thoo got t’ flowers fra ? ” 

But Dick was not going to give himself away. He was a 
gentleman taking a lady out. It was not for the lady to ask 
rude questions. 

So he jumped up suddenly to gather a couple of orchises 
which were growing a few yards away. 

He brought them back, and reseated himself. 

“ What do t’ girt lads say to tha, Nell, when they gaa off 
with tha ? ” he asked curiously. 

“ Maistly nowt ! ” she replied, taking the orchises and ex- 
amining their delicate beauty in detail. 

“Lads is maistly fules ! Anyway t’ lads as I kna is! 
They can just mannish to say ‘ Coom on, Nell ! * and then 
they’re done. I’se fair sick on ’em .! ” 


88 


T BACCA QUEEN 


This remark caused Dicky to feel very superior. He had 
already told Nell a lot of things ; all about his last fight with 
Tom, and how he was trying for an attendance prize at Sunday 
school, and how hard he was practising for the Whitsuntide 
races. 

“ Shall I show tha, Nell, how fast I can run ? ” 

“ Aye, if thoo’s a mind ! ” she said cheerfully. 

Dicky flung off his coat, and ran some fifty yards or so, and 
then returned. 

“That was grand!” he panted. “ I can beat Tom easy 
now, and he’s t’ best at oor school ! ” 

“ Good gracious, Dicky, how white thoo is ! Thou moant 
run like yon ! ” 

“ Oh, I’se a’ reet, leastways — ” and he sat down 
hastily. 

The sunset glow was spreading all over the sky now lighting 
up the northern and eastern fells gloriously, and throwing the 
dark mountains which bounded the western horizon into dark 
yet penetrative shadow. 

This High Fell was like a wide platform erected by Nature, 
from which her children might behold her wonders and 
acknowledge their own insignificance. 

The day was fast closing in, and the level rays of the sun 
just sinking behind the Moss Scar burnt fiery red between the 
branches of a group of Scotch firs on to the faces of the boy 
and the girl sitting on the broken wall. 

But no glow reddened the face of the boy. 

“ Dicky, promise ma thoo’ll niver run like yon again ! 
Theer’s summit wrang wi’ tha ! ” 

Dicky laughed cheerfully. “ Why aye ! I kna that weel 
enough. They thowght I was asleep at t’ horspital, but I 
wasn’t and I heard t’ doctor tell t’ nurse as I was through for 
once, but that if t’ pain started again I’d be done in fower 
moonth ! ” 

“ And hes it started? ” Nell shook Dicky by the arm. 

“ Oh eye ! It’s coomed ! But niver heed. What’s the 
odds ! ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 89 

Just then a young rabbit peeped out from under the black 
trunk of one of the Scotch firs. 

Instinctively Dicky leaped to his feet. “ Eh Nell, if we’d 
only a tarrier ! Happen I’se hit it wi’ a staan ! ” but the rabbit 
was too quick for him and disappeared into his hole. 

Dicky laughed. “ Eh, did ta see how he winked at ma and 
cocked his lile tail ? I wonder if his mother clouts him when 
he gaas yam ? ” 

“ Thine does ! ” 

“ Why eye, va near aulus ! But what’s the odds ? ” 

Dicky was fond of asking this unanswerable question. It 
served him as a support for his plucky young soul on many 
an awkward occasion. 

Just then they heard voices, eager, chattering voices, and 
over the hill top came a group of golfers. 

“ T’ vicar and his wife and two o’ their lasses ! ” remarked 
Nell. The two watched the strokes and listened to the 
laughter, as they passed to the putting green below. 

Catherine nodded at Nell, and said a pleasant good-evening, 
for she was in her Sunday-school class, and Nell nodded back 
in an offhand manner without rising. 

“ It looks nice— -golfin’ ! ” said Nell, “ I could do it !” 

“ Of course if thoo was a lady ! ” 

“ But I am a woman ! ” and Nell rose up to her full height. 
“ I’m strong, I’m young. Why should I bide in the ’Bacca 
Shop all day while such as them enjoys thersells ? I’se as good 
as they is ! ” 

Such an idea had never occurred to Dicky, who had always 
taken his social position as in the natural order of things, and 
had established the policy of getting as much fun and as little 
punishment out of life as possible. He looked at the speaker 
critically. 

“ Eye, if thoo was dressed up, Nell, thoo might be a lady. 
Eh, I’d like to see tha a lady. Thoo’d beat em a’ ! ” 

Nell laughed. Dicky was hitting upon an idea which had 
been worrying round in her mind for some time past, though 
she would never have acknowledged it even to her mother. 

7 


9 o 


T BACCA QUEEN 

She had been wondering vaguely if some change might 
come to her through her grandfather’s death. What if there 
were some money for her? What if the time was coming 
when she might become a real lady ! What would it feel like ? 

Nell knew that she was a beauty. She had been told it 
often enough by her admirers ; and when she looked at her 
face in the glass she knew that they were right. But when 
she looked at herself as a whole in the shop windows going 
down the street, she saw only the rough factory girl, and the 
sight was gradually becoming unbearable to her. 

Ambition was laying hold of Nell, and not recognising the 
feeling, she felt unaccountable irritation in herself and with her 
surroundings. 

A short time since she had readily enjoyed things which 
now she hated, and circumstances worried her now, which 
previously she had never even noticed. 

It had been whispered in the ’Bacca Shop that “ Nell 
Carradus was gerrin’ prood,” a scornful epithet which was 
always thrown at any who desired to better themselves. 

Nell had even struck for higher wages and had got them. 
She had dared the manager, and made him acknowledge that 
when she was pointing for any man who twisted, he could 
make twice as much wage as if he had any other girl, and she 
had stolidly argued that she was worthy of a rise. 

Envy had seized on many other girls, and amongst them 
especially Jane Ann Martin, but the men looked on Nell with 
growing respect. 

But a strong desire was seizing upon Nell to leave it all. 
What if she could get some money and go away and educate 
herself! The idea was intoxicating. 

And then Nell knew the history of her own birth, and when 
Sir Matthew and Lady Preston drove through Farbiggin with 
their daintily dressed children, Nell would stand looking 
darkly at them. 

She never would utter a word aloud, but when a child she 
had often gone away by herself and cursed the whole party. 
But now she seemed to have passed beyond the desire to 


T BACCA QUEEN 91 

merely curse Sir Matthew. It was herself, her mother, God, 
and the world in general she was beginning to blame. 

After these fits of despondency, the old hearty Nell would 
return for a time, and she would recklessly dash into her 
knock-about life with renewed energy. 

“ I tried to be a lady once ! ” mocked Nell to Dicky. “ I 
walked reet oop t’ High Street efter Lady Margaret Temple. 
She’s tall like me, and she walks beautiful. But I couldn’t 
walk like her. I tried, but it was naa use. Happen it was my 
clogs ! ” 

Nell turned suddenly and waltzed by herself on the turf. 

“ Nell ! ” said Dicky, in a loud whisper, pointing to two 
figures standing together against the sky. 

“ Jane Ann and Ben, by gum ! ” said Dicky. 

Nell sat down promptly. “They’ll mek a good match. 
Look, he’s tryin’ to git a kiss off her ! ” 

She rose again as suddenly as she had seated herself. 

“ Coom on, Dicky, we’se off. T’ air isn’t healthy when sic 
folk is aboot ! ” 

Dicky got up. “ Nell, will ta gaa wi’ ma just once or twice 
up and down t’ street ! I’d like to show t’ others as I’se 
gitten tha ! ” 

Nell acquiesced joyously. She foresaw some paying off of old 
scores. 

“ Eye, Dicky, coom along. We’se gaa up and down t’ High 
Street until they’ve a’ seen us, and then we’se gaa into t’ 
Green Dragon for supper ! ” 

This was indeed grand, and Dicky squired his lady down 
the fell and over the loose stones and away down through The 
Scarth to the great Farbiggin promenade, where all the boys 
and girls paraded with unabated energy night after night. 

Groups of girls, four or five in a row, all leaning towards the 
others gossiping — ladsf in little detached crowds smoking 
cigarettes, and passing what they considered witty comments 
on the girls who eyed them with deeply dissimulated in- 
difference. Every night was the same. Always the boys and 
girls, always the dressing up, the wit, the giggling, the rough- 


92 


T BACCA QUEEN 

ness and the flaring gas-light, and always amidst a large 
amount of harmless fun, the great tragedy of life laying hold 
on one and another. 

Dicky was in no way disappointed at the sensation he 
created amongst his own mates. 

The tall girl sauntered up the street, talking eagerly to her 
young companion, only giving the most careless of nods to her 
many acquaintances. 

The great youths nudged each other and mocked when she 
had passed, but they had too great an eye to the main chance 
to openly scoff Nell for her evening’s choice. 

Sallies were levied at the beaming Dicky, but he was quite 
impervious, and was carefully saving up for a few good rounds 
with his fists later. 

“Gitten thy mammy out wi’ tha to-neet, Dicky!” called 
jealous little Katie Benson, who had considered Dick as her 
speciality. 

“ Not that I care ! ” she called after him. “ Prood folk is 
sure to fall ! ” 

“ She’s mad ! ” said Dicky joyously to his companion. It 
was glorious to be making the girls mad. 

“Whar hes ta gitten thy toppin fra?” inquired several. 

“ It’s my curls they mean ! ” he remarked, putting his hand 
as carefully over his forehead, to see that all was in place, as 
any highborn lady. They passed Tom, but he was in the 
secret, so he had no insult ready. He merely looked at the 
flowers, and slowly closed one eye and opened it again. 

But when John Fleming passed, not sauntering but 
walking briskly as on business, Dicky could not help calling 
out, “ Here, Mister, don’t they look grand ! ” 

He stopped short. 

“ Good evening, Nell.” 

“ Hullo, Jack ! ” 

“You do look nice,” he said, looking admiringly at 
Dicky. 

“ Don’t I, and doesn’t she ? ” 

“ Shut up ! ” said Nell. “ Coom along, Dicky ! I’ve promised 


T BACCA QUEEN 93 

him supper to-night at the Green Dragon,” she explained 
unwillingly to John. 

“ May I come ? ” 

“ I suppose it’s a free country ! ” 

So the three turned back, and walked away in the direction 
of the Green Dragon, about which so much was being said in 
the town. 


CHAPTER XII 

The Green Dragon was one of Ryder Glyn’s experiments. 
When the men at the Club chaffed him mercilessly, and 
tenderly inquired after his “ Pub,” he joined in the joke. He 
talked of the affair as a commercial speculation, from which he 
intended some time or other to get a handsome dividend. 

He told his friends that as a dear old aunt of his had just 
left him a decent sum of ready money, he was perfectly 
justified in investing it exactly as he chose. They were at 
liberty to take Brewery shares if they liked to do so; he 
preferred to run his own concern. 

So the optimists considered that at last the problem had 
been solved ; but the pessimists sighed and hoped for the best, 
with the clearest anticipation of the worst. 

Those who preached the popular doctrine of leaving things 
alone and letting sleeping dogs lie, smiled indulgently, but 
carefully weighted the balance against the Green Dragon. 

However, down the capital had gone, generously and 
judiciously. Ryder Glyn’s idea was, that not expecting a » 
fortune for himself but merely a suitable interest, he might 
afford to spend what a Brewery Company could afford in 
preliminary expenses, especially as he was unweighted with the 
huge expense of licensed premises. 

If he could not make his dividend he was prepared to drop 
it, but meanwhile he resolutely discarded all voluntary effort ; 
every one must be paid and the people must pay. “ We are 
sick of charity in Farbiggin,” said Ryder to Mary, as they sat 
over the fire, when the preliminary plot was hatching. 


94 


T BACCA QUEEN 

When Ryder came down from Cambridge with his degree, 
he was filled with a desire to carry out the enthusiastic ideas 
of some of the most earnest-minded sets at the University. 
It was a great change to settle down in this quiet backwater 
of a country town, and he would pour out his soul night after 
night to Mary, who listened with eager interest, vaguely 
surprised to find this young brother going far beyond the 
glimmerings of dissatisfaction with things in general which 
had been troubling her own mind, and speaking out opinions 
which she had been secretly blaming herself for holding. 

Often Ryder Glyn was perfectly right, but sometimes he was 
wrong, for, as Mary would tell him, he jumped to conclusions 
with quite alarming leaps, and had a whole assay of generalisa- 
tion ready merely on the slight foundation of some practical 
incident Mary had told him the day before. 

The Green Dragon was situated towards the centre of the 
High Street, where the road was the widest and the sauntering 
crowd was the densest. The front was brilliantly illuminated 
with electric light, and a large sign painted with realistic 
splendour in green and gold showed forth the awful monster 
from which the establishment took its name. 

When Nell, John Fleming, and Dicky pushed through the 
great swing doors, they found themselves in a wide light 
passage, with other swinging doors to the right and left. 
They entered to the right, on which was painted “ Supper 
Room.” The room was very large and lofty, and beautifully 
decorated. Even though fairly crowded, there was a spacious 
comfort about the place which was instinctively felt. 

From the simple oaken wainscoting dado to the delicate 
wall tint and elaborate frieze, all showed style and taste. 
Across the entire end of the room were drawn, in golden 
lettering, the words, 

“The Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth,” 
whilst across the lower end were the simple words — 

“ We ought not to do as we like, but like to do as we ought.” 


95 


T DACCA QUEEN 

This room was also brilliantly lighted, and, Spring night as 
it was, a modest fire was brightening one side of the room. 
The flooring was of parquetry, and small solid-looking square 
tables were placed up and down the room, whilst at one end 
was the buffet. As they joined this crowd of boys and girls, 
men and women, Dicky had another opportunity of displaying 
himself. 

“ Of course I do the paying !” said John, taking them up to 
the buffet. 

“ What would you like Nell, and you too, Dicky ? ” 

There was ample choice — hot tea, coffee, cocoa, milk, soup, 
aerated waters, of all kinds ; hot fried potatoes, sausages, 
roast potatoes, bread and butter, cakes, etc. There was 
plenty of attendance and trade seemed good, but the 
customers fetched and carried their own to the different 
tables. The charges were very moderate, and John was in no 
way ruined by what he had to pay. 

It was a pleasant sight to see this huge supper-room, and 
even the noise, of which there was plenty, produced a homish 
sociable feeling. 

After the meal, which was one long absorbing delight to 
Dicky, they rose to go into the other room. Their supper 
cheques passed them through the opposite door, otherwise 
they would have had to pay a copper each ; even as it was 
the doorkeeper looked askance at Dicky. But he pulled 
himself as big as he could, and John Fleming good-naturedly 
guaranteed his behaviour. 

This room was quite as large as the other, but instead of 
the buffet there was a platform and a piano, and at the small 
tables different games were in progress. 

The place seemed quite full of chattering, laughter, music, 
and smoke all mixed indiscriminately together. It seemed 
as though something were about to begin, for a bell rang at 
the upper end from the platform. A few bars of music, and 
then an untutored voice sang out, in a deep bass, *' Rocked in 
the Cradle of the Deep,’ which was received with great 
applause. 


9 6 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Let’s have another, auld chap,” called a voice from one of 
the draught tables. “ Gaa on, lad, now thoo’s cleared thy 
whistle ! ” 

So the “Village Blacksmith” sounded forth, sung with 
immense energy, while some joined in at certain familiar bars. 
As the accompanist looked down the hall, she noticed Nell 
standing by the door watching the scene. She was a bright, 
energetic little personage — a music teacher who had been 
engaged for attendance every night, and right well she 
fulfilled her rather difficult task. And it was no light one to 
keep every one happy from seven to eleven o’clock. She was 
getting to be an expert at picking out entertainers, so she 
hurried down the room to Nell, and asked her to give them a 
song. 

Nell turned quite red and said shortly, “ No, I’ll nut !” 

But Miss Emily, as she was popularly called, was not so to 
be put off ; she was the recognised entertainment committee 
all in one, and she knew Nell could sing and she was 
determined that she should do it. 

“ Have you had supper ? ” she asked. 

“Eye.” 

“ Oh that’s all right, then of course you will oblige us. We 
all have to be sociable and do our bit here. Come, I have 
any amount of music up there. Do you know ‘Kathleen 
Mavourneen ’ ? ” 

“ Well, yes,” said Nell reluctantly. It was a song she was 
particularly fond of, and she wondered how Miss Emily knew 
it; but Miss Emily knew a good deal more than she appeared 
to know. 

“ Naa, but I want to be going now ! ” 

“ Oh nonsense, you are not shy ! ” said Miss Emily 
scornfully. 

So every one thought, but Nell knew differently. 

However, Miss Emily was quite determined, and Dicky, 
squeezing against her, said eagerly, “ Eh do, Nell darlin’, for 
my sake ! ” and he gave her one of his irresistible winks. 

John refrained from making any remark, as he was afraid of 


97 


T BACCA QUEEN 

doing more harm than good, but his silence nettled her, so 
she marched up the room, with a “ Coom on ! ” to Dicky, and 
sang her song. 

Nell could sing, there was no doubt about that, and the 
noisy room honoured her by relapsing into silence. 

Clearly and resonantly the words dropped from her lips, and 
as she noted the stillness, she thought what fun it would be to 
try to make them cry. 

So she threw herself dramatically into the pathos of the 
piece, and was well rewarded by hearing quite a number of 
sniffs up and down the room, only the worst of it was that at 
the end she discovered a great tear-drop trickling down her 
own cheek, and though it tickled dreadfully she dare not brush 
it away, in case any one should see. 

There was a burst of hearty applause, and loud demands for 
an encore, but Nell moved off without a bow or a “thank 
you ” to her audience, and hurrying off the platform, she signed 
to Dicky that she was off. 

It was only nine o’clock, and the dread “ Oh dear, what can 
the matter be ” was clang, clanging out for the sixteenth, 
seventeenth, and eighteenth times that day. 

Poor John Fleming did not get much attention, for the 
“ Good-neet, I’se gaain’ wi’ Dicky,” was said with such an air 
of finality, that he could but stand aside and let her pass. 

So the oddly assorted couple went out into the street again 
and away up on to The Scarth. On their way they passed the 
Great House. Nell looked up at the windows. 

“ He’ll be lyin’ in theer ! ” she remarked. 

“ Could us gaa in and see him ? ” 

Dicky knew that every day crowds of persons had been in 
to see the dead, and here was a chance of getting in himself if 
only Nell would. 

The girl hesitated. She had intended to take but little 
notice of the death of her grandfather, under the dim 
impression that people might think if she went near, that she 
was making up to him to see what she could get. But after 
all, when she considered it, he really was dead now, and there 


g8 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


could be no harm. She would certainly like to see him ; she 
had seen so many of those still, resting figures. 

“ My mother said this dinner-time as he was a grand 
corpse, and as the flowers was lovely. She thowght as William 
Carradus must be expectin’ summut to get sa many flowers. 
They might let me in too, if I gaa wi’ one o’ t’ family ! ” urged 
Dicky. 

Still Nell hesitated. “ If I do gaa in,” she meditated, “ I’se 
niver let on to my mother ! ” 

As she still stood undecided, the door opened to the knock 
of an errand boy, and Janet Carradus, after taking in the parcel, 
looked up and saw Nell. 

“Why Nell,” she called, “how is ta? Is ta cornin’ in? ” 

“ Naa, I don’t kna ! ” said Nell dubiously. 

“ Thoo might as week Why, wha’s yon ? ” 

“ Oh nobbut Dicky Dixon, he’s turbel set on seein’ 
him.” 

“ Well, come along in the two of you ! ” she returned good- 
naturedly. “ You’d both like to see him. There’s a deal 
been to-day and yesterday. We’ll have to nail him down 
to-morrow.” So they followed her into the room. 

All was quiet and peaceful, and the large clean room looked 
somehow larger and cleaner than ever, and only That lying on 
the bed in the narrow wooden case, banished any idea of 
emptiness. 

Bull was still keeping watch, curled up in a chair by the 
bedside, and he gave a low growl when the visitors entered, 
but he stopped when he saw Dicky, who seemed to know him, 
for he stroked his head fearlessly. 

Certainly the flowers were beautiful, and in their fresh, pure 
beauty they contrasted strangely with the thin white face with 
the sunken cheeks and scanty hair, which looked so solemn 
and awed. So very, very quiet. 

Mrs. Carradus came up to the bedside, and Nell and Dicky 
stood silent. “ This then was the man,” thought the girl, 
“ who has cast us off, and who scowled at me whenever I met 
him. My grandfather 1 ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 99 

,c He meks a beautiful corpse, doesn’t he ? ” whispered Mrs. 
Carradus, very low, as if the dead could hear. 

“ I don’t kna ! ” the girl replied. It was odd, but she 
suddenly felt a horrible mad inclination to strike that solemn 
face, and she had resolutely to hold back the curses. 

“ Eh, I wonder how he’s likin’ it ? ” whispered Dicky. “ I 
wish he would speak and tell us.” 

“ I don’t ! ” said Nell. “Coom Dicky, let us awa’. Thank 
tha, Aunt Janet. I’se sorry, but I don’t like ’em. I’se niver 
gaa to see another ! ” 

“ Eh, Nell,” said Dicky, as they escaped into the free air again, 
“ I’se glad he’s dead ! ” 

“ What for ? ” She could not imagine why Dicky should 
care either way. 

“ Nobbut I shall hev a bit o’ company when I gaa, and 
shan’t feel sa lonesome. I’se exe him to show ma round. He 
was a friend of mine ! I’ve takken yon Bull out many a time 
exercisin’, and fetched his supper beer and a’ ! ” 

“Then you’d no need!” cried Nell angrily. She was 
vexed that the boy should have been on friendly terms with 
the dead, and worried that he should go on so calmly about 
his own decease. 

“Besides, Dicky, it’s nonsense thee talkin’ as if thoo was 
dyin’ ! ” 

“ But I is ! ” returned he, in a matter of fact voice. “ I 
knaa as I is, weel enough. Thoo isn’t religious, is ta, Nell ? ” 
he asked abruptly. 

“No, I niver was ; I’se niver seen t’ mak as suits ma yet ! ” 

“ My mother isn’t neither, nor I isn’t. Oh no, I ken as I 
isn’t, nobbut I wish thoo was, Nell — when a lad kens as he’s 
dyin’ it meks a difference.” 

Nell stumped along doggedly. What was this thing which 
people failed death. What? nonsensical, naughty, cheeky 
Dick dying ? The idea was absurd, she wouldn’t admit it, she 
would not have it. 

“ I’ll tell tha summut, Nell,” confided the boy. “ Nobbut I 
can last while efter Whissuntid and get me prize and gaa yance 

L.ofC. 


IOO 


T BACCA QUEEN 

mair to Ottarthvvaite, I won’t care ! Eh, Nell, but it was a grand 
supper to-neet. Yon John Fleming he’s a good sort. It was 
partly him as geve me them flowers ! Theer, I’se telt tha ! ” 
Nell pulled up sharply and put her hand up to her flowers. 

“ Dicky ! ” and she pushed him off. 

“Why, what’s t’ row? He’s a good un, Nell. Thee hev 
him — he’s a deal better nor any o’ t’ others ! — Aye, I’d hev 
him, Nell — as thoo can’t hev me ! ” 

Nell burst out laughing at the solicitous tone of his voice. 

“ Why, Dicky, thoo shouldn’t cooart for other folk. Thoo 
should do it for thisell ! ” 

“I’d like, but I’se niver wed tha; I’ll niver last while I’se 
auld enough. But I’ll tell tha what, I’se hev tha for a nurse! 
I’se die better and more comfortable like ! ” 

“ Good gracious, Dicky ! ” cried the girl furiously. “ I won’t 
hev tha talkin’ rubbish like yon. Get along home to thy bed, 
and think on, as if thoo wants a decent supper any time tho’se 
nobbut to say. Now be off, and good neet ! ” 

Dicky laughed. “ Good neet, then. Eh, it hes been grand ! ” 
“ Grand ! ” she acquiesced. 

“T’ Fell, and then t’ street, and then t’ supper, and a 
corpse to finish wi ! ” said the boy cheerfully, as he departed. 


CHAPTER XIII 

A funeral on The Scarth is always a matter of serious 
moment, and when such a well-known personage as John 
Carradus was to be laid in the grave, it was only to be expected 
that large numbers should assemble together to see the start, 
and follow right on to the cemetery on the other side of the 
town. 

Nell still kept to her determination not to buy black for her 
grandfather, and this of course meant that she could not go to 
the funeral ; so she contented herself with watching out of the 
little window, as the coffin was borne down the narrow lane to 


T BACCA QUEEN ioi 

the street where the hearse and the mourning coaches were 
waiting. 

Mr. Glyn had had some conversation with William 
Carradus, and had explained to him roughly the terms of the 
will, and given over into his hands the funeral arrangements. 

Here was a grand opportunity for Janet, and she undertook 
with the greatest satisfaction her share of the work. She was 
a hospitable soul, and enjoyed acting hostess, and liked to 
feel that things were done right and properly. 

Janet knew well the etiquette of The Scarth funerals, but she 
was determined that this one should outdo all others, and 
should in fact be in a style befitting the obsequies of the 
master of the “ Great House.” 

William had tried to hinder some of her more ambitious 
plans with the mournful remark that Lazarus, who had no 
funeral to speak of, was a great deal better off than the Rich 
Man who had a burying. 

But Janet felt the clutch of this world and its fashions upon 
her, and so she replied quaintly — 

“ Eh, William — happen thoo’s reet, but it waint do no 
harm to bury t’ poor feller decent. I’d like to think as thy 
mother ’ll ken as we hev behaved well tull him — and there’s 
always t’ neighbours to consider ! ” 

So she had her way, and refused anything less than the new 
hearse which had lately come from Manchester to the order of 
the Nag’s Head proprietor, which had real plate-glass sides ; 
and she went herself to the hotel to ensure the eight mourning 
coaches coming in style, with drivers dressed properly. 

“ Don’t you let them men come any how because its The 
Scarth,” she said to the proprietor. “ If you don’t tell ’em 
particular, they’ll come with their boots not blacked and 
nobody knows what sort of trousers. Think on as there’s 
brass to pay, but we’ll have no first class paying for a second 
class job ! ” 

And the proprietor smiled politely, and undertook that all 
should be in first class order, for he knew something as to 
John Carradus, and was aware that there was a purse behind. 


102 T BACCA QUEEN 

Now Janet had been particularly anxious to make a good 
show with the coaches. She knew that, generally, six persons 
sat on each other’s knees in one chariot, but she was deter- 
mined this time to make the people stretch to the coaches, 
rather than the coaches stretch to the people. 

“ We’se only hev three in each coach,” she told William, 
“ and I’se hev one by itsell, without any one in at all: The 
gentry often hes carriages at funerals without any folk inside 
’em. It’s a bit of a waste, but it’s t’ fashion. There’ll be all our 
own folk, and t’ Rope spinners’ wives — and Mr. Glyn and t’ 
doctor by theirsells, and if we have eight carriages that leaves 
one with naabody in ! ” 

So by this means she won the distinction of which she 
boasted for years afterwards, of engineering the largest funeral 
that had ever been known on The Scarth. 

She arranged for the usual coffee, ham sandwiches and 
“ funeral buns,” which latter in Farbiggin consisted of large 
circular sponge-cakes, which were supposed to have a special 
faculty for comforting woe. 

She fitted up Bell Lancaster with new mourning for the 
occasion, so that she might hand round in proper style ; and 
having made her hospitable arrangements, she freely invited 
her relations and friends to come in before the start, telling 
them that they were kindly welcome. 

She further purchased for herself the most sumptuous 
mourning, and forced William, much against his will, to buy 
the second Sunday coat he had had since his conversion. 
She struggled hard after a silk hat, but here William was 
obdurate, and she was obliged to content herself with a 
round one with the broadest black band it would carry. 

And Maria Carradus also managed, by dint of the credit 
system and other means which she had at her disposal, to 
rig herself and her three younger children out in appro- 
priate style; and many a neighbour came in to see the 
girls’ frocks and Bobby’s suit and Maria’s gown, mantle, 
and bonnet. 

For Maria had been down to the Free Library to see the 


T BACCA QUEEN 103 

fashions, and she had seated herself at the ladies’ table and 
got everything properly into her mind before visiting her 
dressmaker, who afterwards confided to a friend that she had 
never before had such a faddy customer. 

Nell looked at the women who crowded into the small 
kitchen with ill-concealed scorn. She knew well enough 
that those who were flattering to-day, because they were not 
quite sure how things would now be with Maria, would be 
the first to mock and backbite to-morrow. Nell had not 
lived on The Scarth for eighteen years without knowing that. 

“Thoo might give a look, Nell, and tell me if this bonnet 
suits,” said the mother querulously, as she stood up to the 
little glass smirking at herself. 

“ It’s grand, mother ! Thoo looks like a real lady ! ” 

“Do I ?” said the delighted woman. “Well, Nell, I think 
as really I isn’t sa bad lookin’ even at my time o’ life.” 

“Why naa, mother. I say thoo looks real grand. Folk 
’ull tak tha for one o’t gentry at t’ funeral, thee don’t fret 
thisell ! ” 

Nell was busy at the moment scrubbing the hearthstone, 
and she scrubbed all the harder for a moment or two. 

So when the afternoon arrived, Nell stood by the little 
window and looked out. 

First came the coffin, borne by the six men employes at the 
Rope works, who had all been furnished with gloves, hat 
bands, and ties. On the oaken top were several wreaths, and 
a huge cross the gift of the spinners. 

Then came William, looking extremely solemn, with Janet, 
who wore rather an anxious expression, as if she were thinking 
of something that some one had forgotten; then Joe and his 
wife and Jacky, leading the reluctant Bull. Then another 
son, Reuben, and his young wife Susan, and lastly Maria and 
her three children, each holding a black-edged handkerchief 
up to their mouths. 

Maria was walking with eyes cast down, but was most 
careful to keep her long black skirt and deep crape out 
of the mud ; but the children, whilst retaining the hand- 


104 


V BACCA QUEEN 

kerchiefs in the correct positions, were excitedly glancing 
round to see which of their mates were present to behold 
their glory. 

They looked up eagerly as they passed their own cottage 
to see Nell at the window, but she hastily stepped aside 
and refused the answering nod. 

“Yon’s Geordie Glyn,” said a rough-looking plasterer who 
was standing in his doorway smoking. “ I’se heard as he 
hes a deal to do wi’ Jacky’ brass, but naabody kens aught 
fer sure. William Carradus, he’s a close ’un. He tak’s efter 
his auld father.” 

“ Looks ta ! ” said a woman who was standing on a neigh- 
bouring doorstep with her hands carefully tucked away under 
her apron. “ Theer’s t’ doctor. He’s doin’ t’ last job fer his 
brass. He’ll be off efter this to write oot t’ bill ; he could 
va’ near kep a wife on it. Bell Lancaster, she says he coomed 
ivery day for months ! ” 

“ Well, it’s a good job as he hed t’ brass to pay wi’,” said a 
feeble-looking creature with a baby in her arms, which she 
was shaking every third moment to quieten its nerves. 
“ Some on us — why, we hev a job to get t’ dispensary 
brass, let alone t’ other ! ” 

And now a miscellaneous crowd surged forward, quite 
filling up the narrow lane, and the procession disappeared 
round the corner and under the blue sky which peeped down 
with a clear smile between the house rows, and thus John 
Carradus left The Scarth for ever. And Janet made the 
sensation she desired, for as the hearse and the mourning 
coaches stood in the street waiting for the bearers with the 
coffin, the Saturday holiday-makers in the town were asked 
by many a country farmer, “ Wha was dead this time ? ” and 
their surprise was great when they learnt that it was a Scarth- 
sider who was being thus honoured. 

But Mr. Glyn knew very well that the tug-of-war would 
come, not at the funeral, but at the reading of the Will; 
and he was determined to get it over as soon as possible. 

“ I have told William Carradus,” he began to Dr. Maddison 


V BACCA QUEEN 105 

as they were slowly driving through the streets in the carriage 
provided by Janet, “ that I had better read the Will aloud to 
them all at once and explain how matters stand. It is better 
to stop any sort of misunderstanding.” 

“ You’ll have to expect a little taste of real Scarthsiding,” 
said the doctor, his keen eyes twinkling. 

“Yes, I’m afraid that woman Maria Carradus will be 
extremely disappointed.” 

“ Disappointed, my dear sir ! — that is no word to express 
what her state of mind will be. She will ramp and rage 
and swear and call down the very Devil upon you and the 
whole family. Oh, I know the woman ! ” 

Mr. Glyn looked solemnly out of the window. “ I hope 
not, I am sure. I hope she will have some control over 
herself; but I confess it seems a little hard from her point of 
view.” 

The doctor laughed. “ Hard ? Well, in a kind of way I 
suppose it is, with such a pot of money as there is, by all 
accounts ; but I can’t pity that woman. I can’t. She’s 
a fool.” 

Dr. Maddison had a great contempt for a fool. Genuine 
badness he condoned, but he had no pity for any one 
whom he could describe as a fool. 

“ I suppose she is, poor woman ! ” 

“ Look here, Glyn,” said the doctor good-naturedly, “ shall 
I come and protect you, as Ryder is away ? I should have 
liked to see that boy at this job. He would have enjoyed 
it, and you don’t. If you’ll excuse my saying it, that is 
where you make a mistake sometimes in your dealings with 
these people. I assure you, you don’t enjoy them sufficiently. 
You will have a rough time of it, and Maria is not one to 
mince matters, but it will be as good as a play, for all that.” 

Mr. Glyn smiled gravely. “ I am sure I am much obliged 
to you, but I would really rather see the thing through 
myself. It is, after all, business, you know. I shall cut the 
interview short, if possible.” 

“ I tell you what,” said Dr. Maddison. “ Mind you get that 
8 


io6 T BACCA QUEEN 

girl Nell Carradus to appear on the auspicious occasion. 
She is the only one who has the least chance of holding 
her mother in. I don’t see her here, by the bye. That’s 
rather odd, as she generally has a passion for funerals. 
They appeal to her in some way.” 

“Perhaps she will be very disappointed herself. I have 
seen Nell Carradus disappointed before now, and the sight 
is not pleasant.” 

“Oh, of course, I agree. You may be landed with two 
furies at once, but I think I would risk it. Do you know I 
have a growing respect for that girl. She is really a fine 
character at the bottom, and, by Jove, she is handsome ! 
Why, I have sometimes thought of getting her out of that 
hole, and having her trained as a nurse or something decent.” 

Dr. Maddison continually thought of doing things, only 
these said things so often had the knack of not coming off. 
Probably that was the reason why he had never married. 
His life was just a shade pointless. 

So, late in the afternoon, Mr. Glyn sat in the front room of 
the Great House, where the remains of the refreshments were 
still vexing Janet’s orderly soul. She did think they might 
have waited until she and Bella had had time to side up. 
However, when Mr. Glyn said in that quiet manner of his 
that he was coming, there was nothing else for it but to let 
him come, and she could not have expected Bella to miss the 
funeral, with new mourning and all. 

There were present besides Mr. Glyn, William and his wife, 
Jo and Martha his wife, Reuben and his newly married wife 
Susan, Maria and Nell. 

Nell sat conspicuously amongst the black-clothed group in 
her bright Saturday-afternoon frock. She had come partly at 
her mother’s earnest entreaty, and partly because of a certain 
wildly suppressed excitement of which she was vaguely 
conscious, and which had been making her very restless all 
the afternoon. 

Supposing ! Ah, that was it ! Supposing 

Nell gasped all alone by herself in the little kitchen at home. 


V BACCA QUEEN 


107 


And now, seated in that front room of the Great House, 
her heart thumped violently as the lawyer began to read 
the preliminary part of the document. 

She was determined, if she could, to understand in spite of 
the legal phraseology. But she was soon baffled. There seemed 
to be the names of her uncles and her cousins, but she did 
not hear that of her mother, and certainly not her own. 
But the quiet voice read on and on — there was time yet. 
Nell looked out of the window, and mechanically she 
watched a train slowly puffing up the valley away upon 
the opposite hillside. Nell had often watched the trains 
before. Sometimes she had felt as though they linked the 
little town with all the rest of the world. North and south 
they went, day after day so regularly, so certainly. This 
one was going north — on onward, under the Red Fell ; it 
would round the corner directly, round the corner and dis- 
appear up the valley away into another great world which 
Nell had never seen. 

“ And the residue of my property I leave to George Glyn, 
solicitor, in trust for my granddaughter, Eleanor Carradus.” 

Nell started : the train was nearly round the corner. 

. . daughter of my late son, Richard Carradus, of 
Weimar, Germany.” 

The train had entirely disappeared, and Nell turned into 
the room again. 

Eleanor Carradus ! Was she dreaming ? 

The wild hope that leaped up tumultuously at the first 
mention of the name had died down as if shot dead at the 
completion of the sentence. 

But still it died hard, and she leant eagerly forward 
listening, and when, the reading ceased, Mr. Glyn laid the 
Will down on the table, she did not seem to quite 
understand. 

“ Then what is I to hev, Mr. Glyn ? ” asked Maria as he 
stopped. She planted herself before him, with her hands 
on her hips. 

“ I will explain it all shortly,” he replied steadily. “ You, 


108 T BACCA QUEEN 

William Carradus, take this house and garden with the sum 
of ^2,000. You, Joseph Carradus, grandson of the deceased, 
take all the business of the rope spinning, together with ^2,000 
additional capital, on condition that your son John becomes 
equal partner at the age of twenty-one years, and that he 
becomes sole proprietor of the business at your death.” 

Jo nodded. 

“ And to his grandson Reuben the testator leaves a legacy 
of ^2,000, and the rest of the property he has left absolutely 
to me in trust, for the sole benefit of the orphan daughter of 
his late son, Richard Carradus. She, I understand, lives in 
Germany, and her name is Eleanor Carradus.” 

“And for me, lawyer?” again asked Maria, and Nell glanced 
up at her mother’s face apprehensively, for she appreciated the 
tone. 

“ The testator has not mentioned you at all, or your family,” 
was the reply. Mr. Glyn was determined that she should 
thoroughly understand, and he began folding up the will as 
he spoke. 

Nell sat back with a sudden feeling of sickness. 

It was dead, that wild hope; there was another Eleanor 

Carradus, and she But she could not think for a moment, 

for her mother put her hand out as the lawyer rose. 

“No, George Glyn!” she cried in a high-pitched voice. 
“ Oh no, you don’t ! You don’t go until I’ve hed my say ! 
You’ve hed yours for half an hour. — So there’s nowt for me, 
did you say ? — nowt ? ” 

Mr. Glyn bowed gravely. 

“Then you’re a liar, Geordie Glyn!” she shrieked. Nell 
rose. “ Now ger out, lass, and let me speak ! ” and she pushed 
the girl aside. “ Oh ! ” she screamed, looking round. “ It’s a 
plot. You’re ivery yan on ya thieves and robbers. I’ll hev t’ 
law on ya a’. There’s better lawyers in Farbiggin than thee, 
George Glyn ! Curse him, curse him ! Dead, is he ? Blast 
his soul ! ” 

“Mrs. Carradus!” — the voice was firm and quiet — “be 
careful how you swear before the Almighty. Nothing more 


V BACCA QUEEN 


109 


can be done. A will is a will. No words of yours or mine 
can alter anything. You had better go quietly home. 
Eleanor ” — and he looked at the girl w ith a certain sympathy 
in his face — “ Eleanor, take her home.” 

But the woman was not so to be silenced. 

“Eleanor? Nell, does ta mean? What’s she got to do 
with ma? There seems to be another Eleanor to turn my 
dawghter out of her awn. My dawghter to walk in rags, and 
this foreigner ” 

Janet rose also'; she thought she might help matters. 

“Oh, aye, Janet Carradus. You have feathered your nest 
finely ! We kna what comes of them as is sa kind and 
lovin’! ' Oh eye, d — n tha ! But I’se be even wi’ ya a’ yet; 
and, by the Divil, it’s a sham’ — a cursed sham’ ! ” 

But Nell’s cheeks were flaming. She felt wildly that her 
mother was right. It was a shame. Were all the others to 
turn rich, while she walked the gutter ? On her mother she 
looked with utter contempt, and she felt bitterly the humilia- 
tion of belonging to her — shamed that a gentleman like Mr. 
Glyn should be sitting looking so calmly at them both. It 
was maddening that he should see the tragedy of her life. 
Still, for all that, this thing was a shame, and a fierce hatred 
rose up in her heart against that other Eleanor, who was 
robbing her, and she turned indignantly on the lawyer. 

“ Sir,” she said, laying hold of her mother’s arm, “ my 
mother is reet. It is a sham’ — oh, it is, it is ! And, what’s 
more, Mr. Glyn, you think saa too ! ” 

She looked at him steadily, and he was struck afresh with 
her strong, blazing beauty and commanding power. Her 
steady look of inquiry actually forced him involuntarily to 
give an acquiescent nod to her last sentence. 

“ Mother, let’s gaa. This is no spot for us. Coom ! ” 

Then the pitifulness of the disappointment surged over her, 
and she said brokenly, “ Oh, Mr. Glyn, can’t you do something? 
Can’t you ? Is it really true ? Nowt ? Nowt ? ” 

And again the compassionate look crossed his face. 

“ My dear, nothing. I am quite helpless.” 


no 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Coom on, mother. Good neet ! ” cried the girl as she 
pulled her mother along with her. “Coom along, mother. 
There’s nowt else to do,” and she laughed hardly and reck- 
lessly. 

Out the two went, and down the road Maria Carradus 
mockingly proclaimed her position to all her acquaintances. 

“ Nowt, nowt ! We’se gitten nowt ! Curse him ! ” 

Nell in vain tried to control her ; she broke away, laughing 
loudly. 

“ Ger oot, lass ! I’se off for a drink.” So away she went 
to drink and drink for the rest of the evening. 

But the girl turned slowly homewards in a kind of mad 
dream. 

“ Why, Nell ! ” 

It was Dicky. 

“ Eh, Dicky lad, ger oot ; I’se mad — mad ! He’s niver left 
us a hawpeth ! ” 

“ Oh, Nell, then thoo can’t be a lady efter a’ ! ” 

“ Lady ! ” and the girl laughed loudly. Then, seizing 
Dicky’s arm, she pointed up to the brilliant sky which had 
already donned its evening gown. “ I might ha’ been like 
yon — clean and bonny ! ” she cried wildly. “ Ah ! I might 
ha’ been ; but I’se hev to content mysell,” and the girl pointed 
down to the muddy roadway. “ Nell Carradus was born for t’ 
muck ! ” and she kicked up a great splash of watery mud with 
her foot. 

Dicky looked at her oddly. He certainly did not quite 
understand, so he tried his own solacing thought, for he had 
no other, and said almost affectionately — 

“ Niver heed, Nell darlin’ ! What’s the odds ? ” 

Ah, what were the odds? Nell only wished that she 
knew. 


T BA CCA QUEEN 

CHAPTER XIV 


in 


There was a good deal of suppressed excitement noticeable 
at the Grosherzoglichen Hof Theater on the night of the 
concert given by the Conservatoire students. 

Quite apart from the general agitation and heart-burning 
usual on these occasions, the students knew that Fraulein 
Hilliard was leaving for England, and this was to be her last 
concert. 

The idea of one of themselves coming into a fortune was 
most inspiriting, and that it should be die kleine Englanderin 
for whom they had all recently felt so distressed, was an added 
satisfaction, and every one agreed that some show of congratu- 
lation must be made during the concert. 

Eleanor had recovered her equilibrium, and events were 
gradually convincing her that, whatever might be the worry 
connected with the inheritance of ^100,000, it was certainly 
extremely interesting to have ^50 to do exactly what she 
liked with, with the comfortable understanding that she might 
have more when that was spent. 

She had written to England to say that she hoped to come 
to Farbiggin the week before Whitsuntide, as she knew of an 
escort as far as London on that date. 

So all was fixed, and she was now engaged in clutching at 
the delights of the present under the dream- like feeling that 
everything had suddenly become unreal and almost strange. 

Eleanor was a good deal surprised at the sensation that her 
change in fortune had made. All her friends were so charmed 
on her behalf and so hearty in their congratulations that it 
seemed quite hopeless to expect any commiseration, so she was 
obliged to keep any melancholy thoughts she might have to 
herself. 

Katchen entered into the spirit of the circumstances most 
enthusiastically, and she and Eleanor passed many delightful 
hours in earnestly considering the choice of gifts for all the 
innumerable friends with whom Eleanor was determined to 
leave a souvenir. 


1 12 


T BACCA QUEEN 

Her correspondence with England continued, and she 
discovered that Mr. Glyn was not nearly so terrible as she 
had imagined, but wrote most kindly, and took an almost 
fatherly interest in her wishes, seeming entirely to comprehend 
what a pleasure it would be to her to give without stint to 
those who had been so kind to her in the days of her distress 
and poverty. 

So more cheques arrived from England, and the Herr 
General was again called upon to change them, and the 
consultations gradually solidified into gifts of the most varied 
descriptions. 

So well was the students’ secret kept, that Eleanor had not 
the slightest premonition that anything special regarding herself 
was to take place. 

She was, however, nervously excited over the serious part 
she had to take in the programme, for, beside the Toten Tanz 
with the orchestra, she was down for an Etude, and a Nocturne 
of Chopin. 

The house was crowded, and of course the Gross Herzog 
was present with his wife, for they always took the keenest 
interest in what went on at the Hof Theater, and Musik Schule 
students would have felt very flat indeed if their expected 
patrons had not honoured them by their presence. 

Herr and Frau General von Hervart had been specially 
invited into the Court Box, and when Eleanor came forward 
to make her courtesy, first to the Grosherzog and his wife, and 
then to her audience, she felt comforted with Frau von Hervart’s 
encouraging glance. 

The general audience was a mere dream to her, but she 
caught a good-natured smile from Katchen, who was seated 
amongst the chorus at the back of the stage. She also became 
immediately conscious of the Herr Professor, whose look told 
her that this was a business occasion, and there was no room 
for stage fright. Yet, as she stood there acknowledging the 
tumultuous applause with which she was greeted, she suddenly 
seemed to feel herself encircled by the long-past, by the spirit 
of her own parents who had stood on those boards, playing to 


V BACCA QUEEN 113 

many of the same people, so often in the old days, now over 
for ever. 

“Goldengel” she looked, in her simple white silk gown 
trimmed with some beautiful lace which Frau von Hervart 
had given her as a farewell gift. The golden head and the 
excited pink of her cheeks supplied quite sufficient colour 
without other adornment, and she did not even wear a flower. 

Herr Professor Meyer allowed a few moments for the 
students’ greeting, and then he rapped his desk imperatively. 

At the sound Eleanor turned into the student again, and sat 
down promptly. 

She had not worked in vain for all these years, and the 
audience was musically charmed with her performance; the 
orchestra joined heartily in the demonstration when she had 
finished, and Eleanor retired with great relief until her turn 
came again. 

“The child has real talent,” remarked the Grosherzog. 
What a pity that she should sink again into an English 
amateur ! ” 

But the Grosherzogin was of the opinion that it was better 
for the gold and the pink to be safely protected by English 
friends. 

“Certainly, certainly,” her husband agreed. “It is better, 
but it is still a pity. I must see her before she leaves to-night.” 

There was so much fun and nonsense proceeding behind 
the scenes, that when Eleanor was called up a second time, 
she appeared with the laughter quivering on her face, and she 
had the greatest difficulty in controlling herself as she stepped 
to the front. 

Seeing such manifest signs of the naughty, nonsensical 
Eleanor they had known so long, the students burst forth with 
renewed applause, in which the audience, catching the affection, 
joined. 

But Chopin soon quieted her nerves, and those of the 
house generally, and as the last note died away, every one 
acknowledged that the Englanderin was mistress of her art. 

She rose, bowed right and left, and turned to go. 


1 14 T BACCA QUEEN 

“ EinehMoment,” said Herr Professor authoritatively, and 
Eleanor, with surprise, waited obediently. 

Immediately a little girl student came forward, staggering 
under an immense bouquet of roses and forget-me-nots which 
she handed to the astonished Eleanor. 

And then the Herr Professor turned to the audience and 
explained that this Sehiilerin was leaving for England, though 
she had been born and had lived all her life in the Vaterland, 
and that the students had wished to give her some small 
remembrance of themselves, whereupon he handed her the 
first volume of the complete works of Goethe to take home with 
her to England. 

Eleanor took the beautifully bound volume from his hand, 
quite speechlessly, and this action seemed to be the signal for 
another demonstration, which was only brought to a close by 
the Herr Professor tapping his desk. 

Instantly the chorus rose, and accompanied by the full 
orchestra, the students paid Eleanor the delicate compliment 
of singing in English the old tune of “Should Auld Acquaint- 
ance be Forgot.” 

Eleanor stood transfixed, with a bouquet in one hand and 
the Goethe volume in the other. She tried not to think, and 
her whole frame quivered with excitement. 

What was this tune they were singing ? How soon would 
it be over ? This tune which brought her father’s playing and 
her mother’s voice so near to her, she almost felt as if her 
mother were singing close behind her, and she turned half 
involuntarily, but it was only the voice of a young English 
girl sitting next to Katchen. 

“ For the sake of Auld Lang Syne.” 

Then it was over. Now what was she expected to do? 

Eleanor’s knees began to tremble violently, and she was 
looking helplessly and pathetically at the Herr Professor, 
when a sudden inspiration seized her. She put down the 
flowers and the book hastily, and pushing back the straying 
hair from her forehead, reseated herself at the piano. 

The magical charm of the old Thiiriger Wald in which she 


T BACCA QUEEN 115 

had so often wandered with her parents, and romped and 
played with her Weimar companions, swept over her. 

She also could pay compliments. 

So tenderly and feelingly “Dei’Jager Abshied” by Mendels- 
sohn sounded out from under her fingers. How often the 
merry-making students had sent the echoing “Lebe Wohl” 
wandering in and out amongst the pine forest hills ! 

So the room was quiet and sympathetic, as Eleanor made 
the piano ring out and sob her farewell. 

No words were needed. Her touch was eloquent enough, 
and when the last pianissimo “ Lebe wohl, du schoner Wald ” 
stole forth through the room, the Englanderin had said her 
farewell. 

At any rate she thought so, for, as she lifted her hands from 
the keys, she jumped up and ran off like a hunted deer from 
the platform amidst the cheers of the house. 

But the Herr General came down to find her, and carried 
her off, at the desire of the Grosherzog and Grosherzogin, up 
into the Court Box, where she remained for the rest of the 
concert, receiving the kindly remarks and compliments of the 
august old couple with shy demure appreciation ; and when 
the Grosherzogin, Royal Princess as she was, removed a little 
circle of pearls from her finger and presented it to the girl, 
Eleanor could only courtesy modestly as she thanked their 
Highnesses, and explained to them with naive enthusiasm that 
such a ring was too beautiful for her. 

But the Grosherzog laughed kindly, and remarked that the 
people in England must not think anything too beautiful for 
a Weimarin. 

The next day was Saturday, and as Eleanor was leaving 
Weimar on the following Monday, there was much packing 
and arranging and private farewell taking, and Frau von 
Hervart shone in her patient, easy consideration for the girl 
whom she had so kindly taken under her charge. 

Perhaps the farewell to Herr Professor Meyer was one of 
the hardest bits of leave-taking that Eleanor had yet come 
upon. He had always been such a true friend to her. Kind, 


n6 


T BACCA QUEEN 


cross, irritated, enthusiastic in turn, he seemed as though he had 
put his very self at her disposal, and had allowed her to see 
and know, and partly understand his various moods, dis- 
appointments, and surprises, as she pursued her musical 
course. 

Gradually a subtle world of musical intelligence had opened 
out into existence between the young, eager girl and the 
crabbed old Professor, and the pupil had become so accus- 
tomed to falling in with the mind of the master, that the 
breaking away to carry forward the music, and in fact the 
whole of her artistic self independently, was at once a disruption 
and a pain. 

“And so the child leaves the old man? ” said the Professor 
rather pathetically, and his eyes grew big with tears. 

“ Oh don’t, dear Herr Professor ! ” cried Eleanor; “ it is 
Aufwiedersehn, Aufwiedersehn, not farewell you know ! And 
I shall carry you in my heart with all the music, for wherever 
the music goes in my life, there will also be the dear Herr 
Professor ! ” 

“ I thank thee, child ! ” he returned apologetically — “there, 
thou wilt think that der alte Professor is grown foolish in his 
old age. But he has a heart, and wishes his little one much 
happiness — and child ! when Die Liebe comes, I pray God 
that thou mayest recognise her, and take her to thy heart. 
This is my prayer for thee, and should Die Liebe only give thee 
pain, and thou shouldest become lonely in thy England, and 
shouldest need warm loving hearts to comfort thee, come 
to the old Professor and his wife, and they will make thee 
welcome for the sake of the children who are no longer 
there ! ” 

He took her hand between his great palms and raised it to 
his lips. 

“ Ich danke Ihnen, tausend, tausend mal,” cried Eleanor, 
much touched. “ Oh, Herr Professor, life is really a terrible 
undertaking : I wonder how people put up with it at all ! ” 

She looked so annoyed over the matter, that Herr Meyer 
laughed. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


ii 7 

“ I know not, child, myself why we put up with it, but we 
do, and each one starts afresh with the great idea that for him 
or for her life holds more than for the others. I have thought 
sometimes that this must be because these hearts are really 
stretching across to the other life though they understand it 
not — that this life is but the beginning, at least I suppose it 
is, and the end. Ach, there is no end ! So hope on, child, and 
love, love, love. Always love, for der liebe Gott — He himself 
is Die Liebe ! ” 

“ We are philosophers, you and I, Herr Professor ! ” said 
Eleanor, smiling wistfully. 

“Yes, child. The old think that they are true philosophers, 
but this is not so. Oh no ! It is the children who are the 
true ones. Even Der Herr Jesus acknowledged that ! So 
keep thyself a child ! ” 

“That is hard for me, for I feel so old, old — oh you cannot 
imagine how old I feel ! ” 

The old man looked at the girlish figure before him, and 
laughed scornfully. 

“ Old, child ? Well, be it so ! But remember that thou art 
still my Schiilerin, and even in that England, I shall perceive it 
whether thou art doing thy duty or not. Himmel ! if thou 
dost degenerate into an Englishwoman with the music ! 
Remember thy Cramer, and thy Gradus, and if thou growest 
wooden, and monotonous — Ach, thou wilt receive no welcome 
again in thy Weimar. It is die Liebe, the Magic, the Posses- 
sion, that the Musik Gott wants ; and child, child, keep thy 
fingers loose ! ” 

It was Eleanor’s turn to laugh, and smilingly they parted, 
only to clasp hands once again for a moment in the old Stadt 
Kirche on the following day. 

In spite of a good resolution to the contrary, Eleanor had 
the greatest difficulty in keeping her feelings from getting the 
better of her as she attended the Stadt Kirche for the last 
time. 

The dingy old church was crowded with memories. 

How well she remembered those baby days when her 


n8 T BACCA QUEEN 

parents took her with them, after so many warnings and 
injunctions respecting behaviour ! 

How she used to twist herself round, and nod at the boys 
in the organ loft, and gaze at the back of the Herr Professor 
who was conducting — let her father pull her round facing the 
preacher as often as he might ! 

Then there came the days when she went with her mother 
alone, for there was no father. 

She remembered also the solemn day of confirmation, when 
she stood with her school companions answering the questions 
of the solemn black-gowned Herrn Predigerfc, her clear eager 
voice penetrating even to the most distant and dust enveloped 
corners of the old place. How proud the fair English mother 
had been of her little German daughter! And what a long 
period that was when she slipped into the Kirche alone, and 
listened hard that she might carry away in her head the 
sermon to the mother lying at home : and then there came 
those latter days when there was no mother any more. And 
since then, though Eleanor came to church regularly, she had 
lost her interest in the sermons. What did they matter any 
way now? 

And to-day as she sat up in the dark corner of the high 
pew, with Frau von Hervart sitting beside her, and Katchen 
beyond, she had no intention of paying the least attention to 
the service. The singing of the slow choral soothed her, but 
her thoughts were soon flying up and down her life, past and 
future, for at the moment the present seemed non-existent. 

The preacher was an intensely earnest man, celebrated in 
the neighbourhood for his eloquence, and Eleanor had 
certainly seen with a faint amount of satisfaction that it was 
his turn to take the sermon. 

She had settled herself, however, comfortably in her corner 
with her hand half resting against a marble relief, and had 
absented her mind as far as possible, when she was suddenly 
recalled to the present, as a yearning break in the voice of the 
preacher penetrated through the wanderings of her mind, and 
forced itself on her attention. 


T BACCA QUEEN 119 

“ Ach die Mutterliebe ! ” Eleanor started as if she had 
been struck. 

“ Yes, my friends, the Mother-love of the dear Gott. Think 
of it ! — Mother-love ! ‘ As one whom his mother comforteth, 

even so will I comfort you.’ I — that is the Lord God himself 
— we know Him as the Father ; but do we know Him as the 
Mother, my dear ones ? ” 

Eleanor’s resolutions sank helpless before the impassioned 
appeal, and Frau von Hervart could only put her arm tightly 
round the girl to still, if possible, the inarticulate sobs which 
convulsed the slender frame. 

Escape was impossible, and Eleanor could have raged at 
the man who continued his sermon so remorselessly on the 
one subject she had been trying so hard to forget. She 
seemed bound to listen in spite of herself. 

“ Dear friends, the world is often dark, and hard, and the 
path is rough, and as we grow older we think that the Herr 
Gott also grows as hard as the path we are treading. But this 
is not so. This is a devil’s lie ! The Herr Gott is the same 
now as He was when we were children. ‘Like as a father 
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.’ 
‘Yea, as one whom his mother comforteth, even so will I 
comfort you.’ 

“ Look up, my weary children. Smile once more. Put out 
your tired arms and feel if haply you may find Him. Though 
all hell should war against you, though you should be a stray 
wanderer on the face of the earth, remember that there yet 
remaineth the Mutterliebe Gottes ! ” 

Eleanor gradually grew calmer. Perhaps the preacher was 
right. Was the Herr Gott so very near after all ? As near as 
Frau von Hervart, who still held one of her hands in hers? 

If she were really sure of this ! If it were true that she 
could stretch out her arms to this Godlike Mutterliebe ! 

But was it there ? 

Eleanor had suffered much in her young life, but she had 
perhaps never felt her absolute isolation so keenly as during 
the last few weeks. 


120 


T BACCA QUEEN 

It was as if what every one else called happiness and luck 
had come to her, and she had no one to tell it to. She 
was called upon to bear independence and wealth all 
by herself, and she had been struggling bravely with the 
burden. 

And now the preacher put into words the whole position. 

Yes, she knew it. He was right ! It was the Mutterliebe 
she was yearning after. But was the preacher right as to the 
rest ? Was it possible that she might take the Herr Gott as a 
mother to whom she might confide all her girlish hopes and 
fears ? 

Surely this was quite impossible. 

Still, she was comforted, and when the sermon came to an 
end, and the grand old invigorating hymn of Luther’s, “ Ein 
Feste]( Burg ist Unser Gott,” swept through the church, it 
seemed as though some great weight of life’s responsibility had 
been rolled off her shoulders ; and at any rate she was able to 
smhe very happily in response to Herr Meyer’s farewell greeting. 

During the last of the light on that spring Sunday Eleanor 
slipped away by herself to pay a final visit to the Friedhof or 
Garden of Peace, where her parents were lying side by side 
under the old cedar. 

Farewell is quickly said. A short earthly word, yet nearly 
akin to the eternal language. 

“ Farewell,” the girl whispered as she knelt by the grave. 
The tragedy was, that there was no answer. Farewell, without 
the answering wish from the beloved ones. Oh that she could 
have heard ever so faint a “ Fare thee well.” It would have 
given her courage for the life she was now entering upon. 

But she heard nothing from across that imperceptible chasm 
which we know exists, yet can neither see, feel, nor measure, 
which glides remorselessly in between what we call life and 
death. 

“ Farewell, farewell,” she whispered again. She dared not 
linger. The importunate Present and Future seemed to be 
dragging her away out of the arms of the beloved Past. “ Oh 
yes, I am coming ! ” she ejaculated, and she rose almost as if 


121 


V BACCA QUEEN 

she had caught a glimpse of those unknown guides through 
the mist of her own blinded eyes. 

Yet that was no angelic visitant walking down the little path 
towards her, but only the Friedhof attendant. 

Eleanor knew the quaint old man well. 

“ I am going away now, Herr Friedrichs ! ” she said simply. 
“ I wanted to see you once again. You will care for the grave 
always for me* will you not ? I have told you everything I 
wish.” 

“ Das gnadige Fraulein will find that all will be as beautiful 
as if she were there herself ! ” 

“ Oh, I know it will be so ! And you will put the flowers as 
they bloom in their season ? ” 

“ Das gnadige Fraulein shall not be disappointed.” 

“And in the winter when the snow falls and covers the 
grave, you will not put any more flowers. My father and my 
mother both loved the snow.” 

Again the old man bowed. 

Eleanor was glad that the man’s presence prevented 
further leave-taking, and she walked away with him down the 
path. 

“If das gnadige Fraulein would care to take one last look 
at the tombs of Goethe and Schiller ? ” 

Eleanor did not feel at all inclined, but to please the old 
man she acquiesced. 

It certainly did seem strange to think that her parents were 
resting so near the great ones whom, as a loyal Weimarin, she 
had learnt to revere with an almost adoring respect. 

So she paid her last tribute, and Herr Friedrichs broke 
away some leaves from the dry wreaths scattered on and 
around the tombs and placed them in her hands. 

“And das gnadige Fraulein will remember the great Goethe 
and Schiller in England ? ” he said wistfully. 

“You need not fear,” she replied, smiling; and then she 
added, “ but perhaps I shall remember more your kind 
sympathy with me.” 

“Ach, that was nothing — nothing,” he returned, greatly 
9 


122 


T BACCA QUEEN 


embarrassed. “It was your good kind lady mother who 
came to old Friedrichs in his hour of trouble and grief. May 
der liebe Gott have you for ever in His keeping ! ” 

The girl put out her hand, and then turned hastily away. 


CHAPTER XV 

Edward Ryder Glyn considered that he was fully justified in 
allowing himself to feel bored at the idea of Eleanor Carradus’s 
entrance into his home. 

He was socially extremely indolent, and indulged himself in 
the lamentable idea that he must get “ something accomplished, 
something done ” every day of his life. He also was fully 
convinced that he himself alone knew what that something 
ought to be. 

He therefore lacked both the desire and the ability to laze, 
and was possessed with the idea that the new-comer, if she did 
nothing worse, would most certainly waste his time. 

Ryder had the habit of pursuing his onward way steadily, 
and with a certain passion for observation, he looked at all 
events with a fierce determination to see everything and to let 
no possible morsel of existence-phase slip past him unmarked. 
In a word he took life seriously, whether he were engaged in 
playing a game, preaching a sermon, preparing a debate or 
making a joke. 

At college he had the reputation of being a humorist, yet 
how he got it was a puzzle to many of his friends. Possibly 
he might be described as an intermittent wit, for he had 
wonderful talent for elaborating a certain dry humour into 
absolutely sparkling impromptu, which won for him at the 
Cambridge Union the reputation of being a wit of the first 
water. And he certainly was fully capable of seeing the 
humorous side of life when he gave himself time to do so ; 
and when he had found it he admired it immensely and put 
away the particular train of events into the back of his mind 


123 


T BACCA QUEEN 

for future reference, for he had a prodigious memory and a 
rapid power of assimilation. 'Sometimes, however, he seemed 
actually too absent-minded, too engrossed with his own 
immediate intention to notice the shafts of sunlight which wit 
flashes from time to time through the heavy earth-laden 
dulness. But being vastly appreciative, he weighed and 
admired all the humour he had time to observe, regarding it 
as a precious treasure; but it often needed Mary’s readier 
mind to recall him to the position of seeing that which he 
actually desired and intended to see. When he looked, there 
was no doubt that Ryder saw, but Mary saw without looking. 

So he set his mind on his business, on games, on the Green 
Dragon, on his Father’s Mission and Sunday School, on The 
Scarth, on the world in general ; and finding that such small 
affairs occupied him fully, dawdling and small talk worried 
him. 

It might be imagined that in games, at any rate, Ryder 
relaxed his attitude ; but even this was not so, for he had 
never, perhaps, really “ played ” a game in his life. He had 
always toiled at them as if the fate of the entire nation 
depended upon the result of the game or the development of 
his muscles. 

“ My dear boy,” said Mary, on the afternoon when Eleanor 
Carradus was expected to arrive, “you are just a little too 
active-minded. You are rather strong meat for some of us ! ” 

“ Am I ? ” he returned, without noticing his sister’s tired 
expression, for he had been arguing hard ever since afternoon 
tea, not with Mary, but in Mary’s presence, against some foe 
or foes non-present and unknown. “Well, you know, it can’t 
be helped. We must get on ! Oh the pushing that is required 
in this slow-moving world ! And as for Farbiggin, I do believe, 
Mary, it is the sleepiest and most prejudiced and inefficient 
hole the soul of man could imagine ! Now consider for a 
moment the attitude of the Town Council towards ” 

“ Oh, my dear Teddie, don’t begin on the Corporation at 
this hour ! That is such an interminable subject. I know 
that you ought to be going ! ” 


124 T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Oh, there is plenty of time and the train is sure to be 
late.” 

“Yes, but you have a habit of missing trains,” persisted 
Mary, “ and you ought not to risk missing father. I wonder 
how he has got on with the fair Miss Carradus ” 

“ Do you know,” remarked Ryder, raising his long length 
from out of a great armchair, “ I think that this business is a 
huge mistake. I do indeed. I think home-life should be 
sacred. I never thought that we should ever have con- 
descended to paying guests ! ” 

Ryder was not handsome, but he was tall and well formed, 
with a figure firmly knit together. His hair was light brown, 
with a hint of waviness, and he made up for his want of 
classical outline by his bright healthy complexion and particu- 
larly clear grey eyes. 

He still erred on the side of youngness, but, as Mary 
candidly informed him, he would grow out of that in time. As 
she looked up at him as he stood with his hand resting on the 
back of the couch, she wondered — what many a sister has 
wondered before. But she kept her thoughts to herself and 
pushed him away. 

“ Do go, Teddie, and don’t stand there soliloquising, or 
you will be reduced to the carriage ! You know you have 
missed people several times to my knowledge, and I should 
not dare to say how many times when you have not told 
me ! ” 

Ryder drew up his shoulders and laughed shortly. “All 
right, Polly dearest — well, goodbye. Behold the Martyr ! *' 

“There is nothing in the slightest degree martyr-like in 
meeting a charming heiress at a station not a mile off on a 
beautiful fine spring evening, you ridiculous boy. Oh, do go ! ” 

So he went, and arrived five minutes too soon, and buying 
an evening paper became so absorbed in the political situa- 
tion that the train was in the station and rapidly emptying 
itself on to the platform before he realised with a sudden start 
that he was there for a particular purpose. 

He stuffed the paper into his pocket and fled wildly up and 


T BACCA QUEEN 125 

down seeking the travellers. He soon perceived his father, 
and next moment he was shaking hands with Eleanor. 

“ My son Ryder ! ” said Mr. Glyn shortly. “ Take Miss 
Carradus to the carriage ; I shall find the luggage better 
myself.” 

Ryder was about to protest, but remembering his manners, 
he escorted the girl quickly out of the station. 

“ This way,” he remarked, pushing past the ticket collector. 

“Oh, my ticket,” said Eleanor, rather tremulously ; “ Mr. 
Glyn ” 

“ Oh, don’t trouble about it,” interrupted Ryder. “All 
right ! ” he added cheerfully to the collector. “ Mr. Glyn has 
the tickets.” 

“ Quite right, sir ! ” was the response. 

Eleanor dimly wondered at the unofficial character of the 
proceedings on English railways, and sank back with a sigh of 
relief into the comfortable carriage as her companion departed 
to help his father. 

So she was at Farbiggin at last, and in a few moments she 
would see her future home. 

“Are you coming? asked Mr. Glyn of his son as the 
porters were bringing up the luggage. 

“ No, father, I shall walk, but I shall be home almost as 
soon as you. I hate the carriage,” he added apologetically to 
Eleanor. 

In a few moments the carriage door was shut and they were 
driving rapidly down the street, through the main Farbiggin 
thoroughfare, which was steadily filling up with the usual 
evening crowd. 

Eleanor looked out eagerly, but she could gather very little 
idea of the place during the short journey. It seemed but a 
few moments and then the horses turned suddenly to the left, 
and from the High Street itself they passed through a high old- 
fashioned archway directly into The Abbey grounds. Another 
moment and they were at the front door. 

“ Here we are at last ! ” said Mr. Glyn kindly. “I am sure 
that you must be very tired ! Never mind the luggage, it. will 


126 T BACCA QUEEN 

be looked after without us at last. Come, I want to introduce 
you to my daughter at once, and then you will know us all.” 

Eleanor followed meekly. It was wonderful how meek she 
had become during these last few days. She hardly knew 
herself, and felt as if she would like to get away quite alone 
and scream. The fates, however, had been against such an 
indulgence. They crossed the wide tiled hall into the drawing- 
room, where Mary was lying in her usual place near the 
window. She looked up eagerly as the door opened. 

“ Here we are ! ” said Mr. Glyn cheerfully as he bent to kiss 
his daughter. “I have brought you an excellent traveller, 
Mary ! At last, Miss Carradus, you see the one with whom you 
have had so much correspondence.” 

Mary held out her hand to Eleanor, who came close up to 
the couch. 

“ I am glad that you are here safely, dear. I am sure that 
you must be dreadfully tired ! Was my father nice to you ? ” 

Eleanor could not help smiling in response. 

“ Oh, very kind indeed ! And really I am not at all tired — * 
not in the least ! ” 

“ But she must be very hungry,” put in Mr. Glyn. 

“ Oh no ! really S ” expostulated Eleanor politely. 

Mary laughed. “ Father is always very distressed at the 
idea of any one being hungry. I expect he is feeling the 
pangs himself! Never mind, father dearest! dinner will be 
ready almost immediately ; and I told them to give you a cup 
of tea in your room, Miss Carradus. That will refresh you 
There is nothing in the world like the all essential tea ! ” 

Eleanor again smiled in response to Mary’s infectious 
brightness, and to her smile she added half shyly, “ Thank 
you very much indeed.” 

Mary made a rapid survey of the girl, and in her own mind 
at once decided that she must give full measure of cordiality, 
and that promptly, in order to force an immediate surrender. 
And when Mary put forth her best endeavour, whether to 
charm or to go her own way, it was hard to withstand her. 

“Do sit down a moment ! Yes, have I not a sweet view ? 


127 


T BACCA QUEEN 

One cannot see the dear old hypocrite of a sun slip away to 
bed, for we face east and north — but do look at the reflection 
of the toilet he has evidently been indulging in to-night ! He 
is often a terrible dandy in this part of the world.” 

Eleanor looked out at the subdued light on the ascending 
distance. “ Yes, it is very pretty. You have a lovely view ! ” 

“ I do not think, dear, that Miss Carradus had better wait 
to admire the prospect,” struck in Mr. Glyn. “ I am quite 
sure she must be tired.” 

“ Of course,” his daughter replied. “ But I am only waiting 
for Madge, father ; she will be in any moment. Madge is my 
maid, a really comfortable old personage, so you must ask her 
for anything you want. She has been greatly looking forward 
to another young lady. She still thinks me one, you know ! 
Here she is ! Ah, Madge, I am glad you are come. This is 
Miss Carradus. I have told her that you will look after her. 
You must explain to her our little ways. You may even tell 
her how very nice we all are, if you like ! ” 

“ There is not a nicer family in all Farbiggin, Miss ! ” said 
Madge soberly to Eleanor, taking Mary’s nonsense in all 
seriousness. 

“ Or a more conceited one ! ” put in Mary. “ Never mind, 
Miss Carradus, we are all going to do our best to like each 
other, are we not?” 

“ Oh yes,” said Eleanor, and she looked down on the sweet- 
faced woman on the couch. What was it she saw in the face 
that compelled her to continue her gaze ? A Madonna face, 
the Herr Professor had said. Yes, surely he was right, and 
more than right. The Professor had only seen in his young 
pupil, with her delicately cut features and deep, happy eyes, the 
type of the girl Madonna as she appears in the first blush of 
the glory of her possession of the child Christ, before the 
sword pierced her soul. 

But Eleanor looked down at a face on which, above the 
deep shadows painted by a tragedy of pain and sorrow, the 
peace of God rested shining ; and as Mary returned the wistful 
gaze of the stranger girl, it seemed as though a protective 


128 


T BACCA QUEEN 


lovingness sprang to life in the deep brown eyes, and Eleanor 
wondered vaguely whether she had again on earth found Die 
Mutterliebe. 

Mary knew not that her face shone, but she noticed the 
quivering lips, and instinctively she hastened to change the 
current of the girl’s thoughts, and she was therefore glad of an 
interruption. 

“ Ah, here is Ryder ! Well, and did you meet them ? You 
know, Miss Carradus, my brother is a sad scatterbrain. He 
needs all my staidness and sense of regularity to keep him in 
any kind of order ! Now I want to know — did he really meet 
you ? I mean properly ? Was he looking out for you ? Did 
he actually open the carriage door ? ” 

“ Well,” began Eleanor, looking up at the tall young man 
with a swift perception of the circumstances, “I think that 
you met us ? At any rate you were there when Mr. Glyn was 
finding the luggage.” 

“ Oh, I know exactly ! ” retorted Mary. “ He had a paper ! 
Now had he not? Yes, there it is sticking out of his pocket ! 
Oh, Teddie ! ” 

“ Don’t be silly, Mary ! I met them all right. I was in 
heaps of time, only I did not just hear the train come in at the 
moment ! ” 

Mary was too loyal to let her brother down too hard before 
an entire stranger, so she suggested that Eleanor should make 
her way upstairs with Madge and refresh herself after her 
journey. 


CHAPTER XVI 

Dinner at The Abbey was always as short as was consistent 
with Mr. Glyn’s sense of the dignity of existence. 

Almost every evening there was some meeting of a religious 
or philanthropic character which he or his son felt themselves 
bound to attend. 

Ryder, it is true, was gradually becoming more discrimina- 


129 


T BA CCA QUEEN 

ting as to what he let himself in for, and Mary had listened to 
many complaints and descriptions of what he had suffered 
from going to “ support ” affairs in which he himself took but 
a faint shadow of real interest, and impotently he kept 
declaring that he would absolutely refrain from going to places 
in which his mere bodily presence — the actual amount of 
space which his six-foot frame would occupy — was the one 
essential point. 

From childhood the Glyns had been accustomed to being 
taken by their father to meetings addressed by worthy and 
often extremely dull speakers ; and Mary had often described 
laughingly how they had critically eyed the meeting on their 
entrance, and then sought to spread themselves amongst the 
general emptiness, so that they might sit at the exact points 
which would best give a feeling of fulness and encouragement 
to the platform, and cause the reporter who looked in and 
sidled out during the first ten minutes to satisfy his conscience 
when he wrote afterwards that the “ meeting was well 
attended.” 

Farbiggin was crowded with energetic souls who got up 
meetings, and the Glyns were exactly in that position which 
made it most difficult for them without actual discourtesy, or 
apparent indifference to the innumerable good causes, to 
decline attendance. 

Mr. Glyn especially was so very acquiescent, so ready to 
oblige, so anxious not to miss the “ leading ” of God, that he 
fell an easy prey to their representations, and “ deputations ” 
of every conceivable sort found ready hospitality at The 
Abbey. 

Ryder was too much possessed with the desire for definite 
accomplishment to let himself go quite so easily, and was busy 
finding out where he at any rate thought he was the most 
wanted, for he longed to go in and put his shoulder to the 
wheel himself, to see if perchance he could accomplish some 
little bit of the world’s work without spending all his time 
discussing the matter. 

But the meeting producers yearned for the good old days of 


130 


T BACCA QUEEN 


early dinners and high teas, and in fact they many of them 
considered that dressing for late dinner was the curse of the 
age. 

People, they said, used not to grudge turning out again in 
an evening to share the joys and sorrows of their fellow-men ; 
but nowadays, when the hard-working upper-middle classes 
had taken to dressing themselves up for private social enjoy- 
ment, there was no doing anything. 

Ryder Glyn, on the other hand, yearned for the still older 
days when the rich lived far closer to the poor, and when even 
at meal times the great lords and the poor retainers mingled 
with some degree of sociability. 

“ We don’t eat together enough ! ” he would argue. “ What 
is the use of an occasional tea-meeting. We stand about and 
watch the others eat quite different food from what we should 
have had ourselves, but we don’t sit down in our own houses 
enjoying each other’s society.” 

Arthur Calthwaite, at the Club, mocked Ryder for being 
what he was pleased to call a Socialist, but there was no one 
more alive to the essentiality of difference between so-called 
position than Ryder. 

But this did not prevent him from thoroughly appreciating 
that which was most interesting and effective in any section of 
society he came in contact with. 

If he had conversed with a king, he would have earnestly 
endeavoured to have got hold of the kingly mind ; for as he 
was possessed of the enthusiasm to be “ all things to all men,” 
he was quite ready to climb a mountain peak or descend the 
deepest mine to gain the particular point of view of the person 
he was with. 

As yet, perhaps the section of Society he least understood 
was that of young womanhood. 

Never having known a mother’s love, he had allowed Mary 
to supply that place during his boyhood. Then when he went 
to college and experienced a larger life and a wider knowledge 
he had relegated her to the position of a very kind, but 
ignorant, unworldly-wise sister, to be of course very dearly 


4 


V BACCA QUEEN 131 

loved, but whose opinion was not exactly one that a young 
man out in the world could defer to. 

Since his return to Farbiggin it was gradually dawning upon 
him that possibly — only possibly as yet — Mary was capable of 
walking along the same road as his own wiser self, and at this 
time he was paying her the compliment of regarding her as a 
kind of younger brother. 

It was, indeed, an immense advance for Mary to cease to be 
looked upon as a woman by Ryder. 

There were, of course, the Vicarage nieces, but they were as 
yet little more than delightful playthings. 

As for the Farbiggin young ladies who studied him as 
an interesting eligible, he passed them over with supreme 
indifference, and had actually been guilty of confiding to Mary 
that when he fell in love he should only need to beckon with 
his finger and the girl would come. 

And Mary smiled, awaiting the denouement. 

Mary sometimes sighed at the incessant out-going of her 
menkind, but she had long ago determined never willingly to 
stop the active work of the world because of her own 
infirmity. 

“I suppose, father, that you must go out to-night?” she 
asked as they were seated at dinner. “ I rather hoped that, 
after your journey, you might feel that they could do without 
you ? ” 

“ I am afraid not, dear. I was away last week, and I do 
not like to break the continuity.” 

“My father has a men’s Bible-class on Friday nights,” 
Mary explained to Eleanor. 

Eleanor was not exactly surprised. She was getting used 
to this man who had been reading his Bible most of the way 
on the journey, who had already presented her with several 
little booklets showing the line in which his mind worked, and 
which she had received with some amount of polite aston- 
ishment. 

“ I am afraid you will find us rather busy people, Miss 
Carradus.” said Ryder. He felt inclined to make it quite 


I 3 2 T BACCA QUEEN 

clear from the beginning that she had come into a working 
household. 

“We are just the kind of people, you know, whom every one 
captures for anything and everything that goes on.” 

“ Oh, I do hope I shall go to some of the things ! ” she 
returned, without noticing the slightly warning tone. “ I do 
love going out! Have you many concerts here?” She 
waited eagerly for the answer. 

“There are very good concerts occasionally, and we con- 
sider ourselves rather advanced in the musical line,” said 
Mary. “We actually have a Musical Festival once a year, a 
Choir Competition, an Orchestral Society and Choral Society. 
But we are not like Weimar, you know ! ” 

“ I expect that Miss Carradus has come over with her mind 
ready prepared to despise the English efforts after music,” 
said Ryder bluntly. 

“ But why ? ” she asked quickly. 

“ Oh, I believe that you Germans think that we are bar- 
barians regarding music?” 

“ Miss Carradus is not exactly a German, Ryder,” remarked 
Mr. Glyn. 

“ No, father, but I expect she has imagined that she was 
wandering back a couple of centuries when she came to 
England,” insisted Ryder. 

Eleanor blushed slightly. “ He’s rather rude, for the first 
night ! ” she thought ; then aloud, with her most innocent baby 
expression — 

“ Then do you consider that you English are as up to date 
in music as the Germans ? I have often wanted to know 
that ! ” 

Ryder never lost a chance of airing his own views where 
there was a loophole for an argument, and therefore in a very 
few moments he was in full cry setting forth his ideas, which 
on this c special subject were rather crude, stating his case, 
which was drawn more from an intuitive instinct than from 
any strong foundation of solid fact, and pleading his own side 
energetically as if he were getting up a case for a barrister 


133 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ He is awfully opinionated,” thought Eleanor. “ He and 
I shall quarrel, to a certainty. “ And so ignorant, or he never 
could repeat all those absurd statements ; and yet they are not 
wholly absurd — they are clever with that aggravating half-truth 
cleverness, ever the worst of lies ! ” 

She said very little, only a sentence now and then, just 
sufficient to fan the flame of her self-made opponent. 

“You see,” she said at last, “ I am sorry, but you have the 
advantage over me. You English know all our German 
composers and you have heard their compositions, and you 
have festivals to produce their works ; but we in Germany — we 
Germans, you know, are not so widely educated. We have no 
festivals to reproduce the works of your — whom did you say 
just now could be compared with our Bach, Beethoven, 
Handel, Schubert, Wagner?” 

Eleanor’s eyes sparkled, and her words poured forth rapidly. 

Ryder moved uneasily in his seat, and looked across at this 
golden-haired, pink-and-white arguer, and a feeling of honest 
shame sent a deep blush creeping up under his bronzed 
complexion. 

Mary decided it was time for a diversion, and thought that 
she foresaw future fireworks. 

“My dear Teddie, I am sorry that, for the honour of 
Farbiggin, Miss Carradus has had the best of the argument. 
Let us ‘continue in our next,’ as the magazines remark. Are 
you going out to-night ? or could you spare us the honour of 
your society ? ” 

« I promised to look in at the Green Dragon.” 

“ Oh, there will be time for that after Miss Carradus and I 
retire. Come in soon, and wait until after tea. Perhaps, Miss 
Carradus, you will play to us ? You do play, of course ? ” 
Mary looked inquiry at Eleanor. 

“ A little,” Eleanor replied mendaciously ; then looking 
across at Ryder with a kind of quizzical challenge she added, 
“ But only German, Russian, French and Swedish music ! ” 

“She is a downright little flirt !” thought Ryder. “ She is 
trying to catch me already ! ” 


x 34 


V DACCA QUEEN 


Oh, the conceit of the boy ! Blaming the woman as usual. 
For he was caught and chained, and already dragging des- 
perately at the fetters, though he realised it not. 

And Eleanor was certainly quite heart-whole, and was only 
letting off her natural spirits, which had been so artificially 
controlled for the last few days under the solemnifying influ- 
ences of her grey-haired guardian, and by a general feeling of 
fright as to where and how she might find herself. 

If she were the Princess to Ryder, she saw nothing in him 
to give her even a premonition that she had found her Prince. 

Ryder protested that he really ought to go, but nevertheless, 
some time later he appeared in the drawing-room, where he 
found Eleanor seated on a low chair beside Mary. 

Already the two were discussing Weimar and the Herr 
Professor, and in spite of Eleanor’s determination to be very 
stiff at first and not commit herself, she found that she was 
confiding all manner of private matters to her listener. 

Mary smiled to herself as she listened, but in that smile 
there was no unkindness — no bitterness, only a faint quivering 
of wistful sympathy with the youngness of the life spreading 
itself out so naturally before her. 

Mary had seen many heart- leaves turn themselves over 
before her kindly eye ; she knew exactly when to put her hand 
to stay or hasten the turning of the leaf, though the heart was 
seldom conscious of all it was revealing. 

“ Here is that cantankerous boy ! ” said Mary as Ryder 
entered. 

Eleanor looked up a trifle bored, for she was enjoying 
herself. 

“ I wonder if you would really mind playing us some little 
thing ! ” asked Mary. “ You don’t know what a delight it is 
to me to think of having the piano freely used again ! ” 

“ Oh, I am not tired,” said Eleanor politely, making a move. 

Ryder strolled forward with a copy of an illustrated paper in 
his hand, which he laid down by Mary. 

“ Then do play something,” she said. “Teddie, exert yourself 
and open the piano.” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


135 


Ryder made a hasty movement and made for the piano. 

“Can I get your music or anything?” he asked rather 
helplessly. 

“ Lights ? ” suggested Mary. 

“ Oh yes, of course ! Where do you keep the matches ? ” 

Eleanor looked up amused. She imagined that all men 
carried a supply of these indispensable atoms. 

She jumped up. “ Oh, please don’t bother ! I don’t need a 
light. I’ll just play anything I can remember to-night ! ” 

“ You may find the piano all wrong. I won’t guarantee it. 
It has never been used really since the winter at our last At 
Home. Then it got enough to last a season or two. Do you 
remember, Mary, that old Herr ” 

“ Oh, a German ! ” interrupted Eleanor rather scornfully. 
“ Well, I will be careful. You need have no fear.” 

Mary laughed, but Ryder turned away. 

“ Now I have made him cross,” thought Eleanor. “ Oh 
dear ! how shall I make it up ! I must be dreadfully ill- 
mannered, and he’s — Never mind, I’ll play for that sweet 
sister.” 

Eleanor was too much of an artist to be conceited over her 
playing, and yet she did feel a certain delight in her power that 
night. For one thing, she was aware that she was giving intense 
pleasure to Mary, and this was a source of gladness to her 
kind little heart ; and then, from her place on the stool, she 
could easily see that she was surprising that “ conceited boy/ 
as she mentally dubbed Ryder. 

Mary was ecstatic in her approbation, but he said little. 

If the truth were known, Ryder was feeling rather small. 
He was discovering that he had been making a fool of 
himself, and such a discovery is never very pleasant. 

How he had jabbered at dinner. What did he know about 
music? This slip of a girl had probably done nothing but 
music all her life. Had very likely meant to take it up 
professionally if she had not turned into an heiress — a Scarth 
heiress. 

What a sweet face she had ! — so wistful — so tender — • 


136 


T BACCA QUEEN 

He looked again — A half smile. Was there roguery hidden 
amongst the curves of that little rosebud mouth? 

Democrat was he? Then why an indescribable whiff of 
scorn passing like an autumn wind across his heart as he 
remembered that she was half a Scarthsider ? 

He rose to get a book from a little oaken shelf — only 
Tennyson. And then tea came in and the music ceased, and 
Eleanor felt a sense of home as Mary asked her to pour out 
tea. She had not made tea for any one since — But she 
would not think of that ; — that life was passed, and this one 
had begun. 

Eleanor lay wide awake for long that night, listening to the 
old church chimes as they rang the quarters ; and the moon 
had risen high in the heavens and was 'flooding the room with 
her strange ghost-like light before she finally fell asleep. 

As for Ryder, he spent the remainder of the evening at the 
Green Dragon, and when he finally went to his room took a 
volume of Tennyson’s Poems with him, and for the first 
time in his life understood something of what the poet meant 
to say when he wrote Maud. 

Next morning Eleanor, in the safe privacy of her own room, 
settled herself to the joyful task of a long letter to Katchen. 

“The Abbey, Farbiggin. 

“ You darling Child, — Well, I have arrived, I am actually 
here, and I am quite ashamed of those scraps I wrote you from 
London, but hardly know how to begin and tell you all about 
it. I am, all the same, bursting with what I want to say. It 
is dreadful, dreadful to have no one to laugh to ! 

“ When funny things happen I keep thinking, ‘ Oh, how I 
should like to tell Katchen that ! ’ and while I am thinking it, 
I begin to smile and these people must wonder so ! 

“And they keep calling me Miss Carradus. That is so 
funny. I never thought how queer it would be, until I heard 
it from Mr. Glyn when he met me. Why, to change one’s 
name suddenly like that is almost like being married, without 
any of the fun. For I suppose it is fun being married ? 


T BACCA QUEEN 


*37 


“ Well, but to begin properly. You can’t think how touched 
I vras at so many coming to the station to see me off. Such 
crowds and crowds of you, and then the flowers ! 

“ My dear children, what did you expect me to do with that 
carriage full of flowers ? Oh, I do hope you won’t all mind 
when I tell you what I did do. 

“ I carried them with me into the boat — not one was left 
behind; then I picked out one flower from every bouquet, 
and these are in my English room now. Quite faded, but I 
shall prize them for ever. 

“ And the rest — well, you know it was night, and as the boat 
plunged along across the dark water, the wide-eyed moon 
plunged also along through the great massy clouds overhead 
all the way along with us, and the clumsy old sea kept laugh- 
ing back at her with a rippling kind of silvery laugh, and I 
dropped the flowers one by one over into the shining track, 
and it is my fancy that I have left a beautiful pathway of 
flowers between me and the dear Vaterland ; and I can never 
think of the great deep dividing seas without remembering the 
dainty blossoms trembling on her panting breast in the spark- 
ling moonlight ! There ! is not that foolish ? I wonder what 
the sober people here would think if I confessed to such non- 
sense ! 

“ No, I was not sea-sick. But I was awfully excited, for you 
know I have never seen the sea in my life ; and I made my 
chaperon lie down, for she was terribly bad, poor thing, and then 
wrapped myself up and stayed on deck the whole lovely night. 

“I kept a little Vergissmeinnicht to the very end, and 
dropped it into the sea just as the boat was beginning to slow 
off, and, dear Katchen — I kissed each dear, darling ‘Blos- 
somchen ’ ‘ Farewell ! ’ 

” Mr. Glyn met us at Victoria, and from that hour I was 
under his charge. 

“ Oh, he did frighten me ! I have not got over it yet. He 
is so dreadfully polite, and grave and aristocratic, and well- 
clothed. I did not realise that lawyers were quite like that, 
but I believe he is different from many. 

10 


138 T BACCA QUEEN 

“ We went to a lovely hotel, my first experience of anything 
so grand, and I hardly dared find my way down the great 
wide stairs to table (Fhote. I felt as if I ought to apolo- 
gise to the servants and waiters for my insignificant appear- 
ance. 

“ We stayed, as you know, a few nights in London, and you 
would have laughed if you had seen my guardian escorting me 
about and heard him talking to me about things that he 
thought would interest my infantile little head. 

“ I can’t tell if I have made a good impression. I rather 
imagine that they all think me a petted baby. And of course 
I am not. Am I ? 

“ Mr. Glyn had a lot of business at some court, so he intro- 
duced me to a queer little lady called Miss Williams, his cousin, 
and she exhausted herself on my behalf. She informed me 
that she had a passion for shopping, and she took me all over 
— to the Stores, Regent Street, Bond Street, Kensington, and I 
could not tell where. I got rather tired, but it was tremendous 
fun, and we spent a terrific lot of money. It seemed awful to 
be spending money like that, but she made me tell her all 
about my clothes, and somehow I did not mind at all. I 
have been fitted by tailors, fitted by dressmakers, by boot- 
makers, &c., &c., and all my own little effects will, I am 
afraid, disappear from view. 

“ Oh, and I must tell you the greatest thing of all. Mr. 
Glyn told me that they rode on horseback a good deal at 
Farbiggin, and that I had better have a riding-habit ! That 
did make me think of my darling mother’s descriptions of her 
lovely rides in Moorshire. I must confess to you that there is 
a pleasure in nice things, and also in looking nice. This little 
lady has no reserve, but kept dilating on my supposed beauties 
to the various shop-people and even to myself, as if I were a 
stock or a mere tree. 

“ At first I blushed with bashfulness, as you can imagine, 
but I soon became quite hardened. I was really sorry when it 
was time to leave her. She lives in a charming flat in Ken- 
sington. We did not go to the theatre, as I longed to do. 


T BACCA QUEEN i 39 

She told me that Mr. Glyn would not approve, and that she 
only went herself when she thought no one was looking. Isn’t 
that queer ? 

“ It was a long journey here, but we were most comfortable. 
It is delightful going first class, and doing everything in nice 
style ; and yet when I saw the homely people pushing into the 
third class carriages I thought, ‘Yes, Eleanor Carradus, and you 
ought to be with them ! ’ 

“ Oh yes, and Mr. Glyn gave me tracts to read ! I 
was awfully astonished. I do hope I shall not shock them 
all. 

“You must not mind my skipping about in this letter. My 
mind is all on the skip. 

“ Miss Mary Glyn is really charming. Yes, she is, and you 
can tell the Professor— with my love — that he was quite right, 
and that I was quite wrong. I have fallen in love with her. 
I hope it will last. 

“ There is a dreadfully conceited brother called Ryder living 
in the house. I tried to sit on him the first evening, and was 
rather rude I am afraid, but I think he is one of those in- 
sufferable young men who are consumed with a sense of their 
own importance, and I believe he thinks my advent a bore. 
One of the regular bother-the-women-kind of young men ! 

“ I think it must be rather a bother, after all, for them to have 
me here, but I shall soon be of age, and can then go away on 
my own hook. I must say they are very polite, and treat me 
as a welcome guest ; so your dear Frau Mutter would say I 
ought to be extremely thankful — as indeed I am. 

“ There is a lovely view from this window, but I am not 
good at descriptions. 

“ I am sure they have given me one of their best rooms. 
The window is a large bow, and you look out on to a closely 
shaven lawn — very tidy, with prim flower-beds cut out ap- 
parently by the aid of a rule and compass ; but right across 
are some beeches, all freshly covered with their greeny-brown 
leaves. 

“ Then there is a low wall, and beyond it a footpath, which 


140 


T BACCA QUEEN 

runs on this side of a lazy, dawdling little river, and over on the 
other side there is another footpath and a low hedge. I can 
see the white hawthorn blossoms as I write, and beyond again 
are meadows and real English hayfields, and almost opposite I 
can see a long shady lane leading over a bridge on to a hill- 
side ; and right on the very top of the hill — think of it, you 
unromantic Katchen ! — there is a real old ruined castle ! 

“ Fancy anything so charming as that in England ! I shall 
go the very first chance I have and plunge myself into its 
midst ! I can hear you exclaiming at that last sentence, but I 
can’t help it — it is what I mean. Bathe my present- world dull 
little soul in the atmosphere of the long past, if you like that 
better ! 

“ I was awake very early this morning, and saw the most 
exquisite sunrise you could imagine; but I will spare you 
any more ecstatics. 

“ I imagine that the town must be all behind somewhere, for 
there are hardly any houses to be seen from this side. 

“ The room looks rather bare at present, as my heavy luggage 
has not yet arrived, but Miss Glyn explained that she thought 
I would rather have plenty of room for my own things. 

“ I have had several rather solemn business talks with my 
guardian. He says that my grandfather was a very respectable 
working man, and that there are some nice and some nasty 
working-class relatives in the town, but that my grandfather 
desired particularly that I should not be intimate with them 
until I was of age. 

“ I always guessed at such relations, but the definite news is 
rather a shock to my feelings, and you know it is quite absurd 
to think that I shall not come across them. However, I am 
not going to worry myself at present. 

“ I feel far more disgusted about my mother’s family. Mr. 
Glyn says he does not think that the Whineries ever knew my 
father’s name, or that he belonged to The Scarth ; but he says 
that my grandfather gambled himself to death, and that every- 
thing was sold up, so I shan’t be bothered any more with that 
connection. So I am thankful that, as they did their level best 


T BACCA QUEEN 


141 

to break my darling mother’s heart, they have never had the 
chance of insulting me. 

“ All the same, these complications make me feel a little odd, 
but I expect everything will turn out right in the end. 

“ I really must stop, dear, for old Madge, the maid, has been 
in to say that Miss Glyn is going for a drive, and would I like 
to go. 

“ Of course I would, for I am dying to see all the place. 

“ Please give my very dear love to Frau von Hervart, and 
remember me most affectionately to Herr General. Please 
tell him that in my new life I shall not forget all his kind 
fathering. 

“ And with much love and many kisses to you — you dear, 
darling, comfortable old Katchen, 

“ I remain, 

“ Yours always, 

“ Helenchen.” 


CHAPTER XVII 

The Moorshire Times is an enterprising journal, and it was 
not long before the main details of the Will of John Carradus 
were set forth, with a few sparkling platitudes on the ups and 
downs of life, with a quotation or two from Shakespeare to 
emphasise the authority. 

The topic of the Will was naturally extremely interesting, 
and for a short time became a matter of more than common 
gossip, not only in Farbiggin, but in the surrounding neigh- 
bourhood of Moorshire. 

Mary Glyn’s callers increased perceptibly, and she was 
asked many leading questions, which she answered after her 
own manner. 

Of course, on The Scarth every one talked over the Will. 
In the discussion it appeared that opinions were divided as 
to its justice.# Many thought that Maria had been rightly 
served, and that she had only herself to blame, and with hard 
consistency they refused her any pity. 


142 


T BACCA QUEEN 

Maria had consequently to put up with a good deal of 
chaff and jeering as she draggled about The Scarth, more 
drunken and more foul-mouthed than ever. In the Wild 
Boar, where she bestowed most of her patronage, she held 
forth on her grievances at great length, and the landlord, in 
deference to so good a customer, gave her the house. 

“To see t’ auld lass at t’ funeral dressed sa fine, and wi’ 
black edgin’ tull her handkercher, and then him niver leavin’ 
her a fardin’ ! ” jeered a woman. 

“ Eh, if she’d kent it, she’d ha’ given her mind tull’t corpse 
hissell ! ” said another. 

“ Eh, Maria lass, Jacky hed t’ best o’ tha yon time ! 
Thoo ’ll ha’ to lait some one else to keep tha ! ” said a man, 
leering drunkenly at her. 

For answer she bestowed on him a sounding box on the 
ear, as she went forward for another glass. 

“And whar did ta git thy brass for thy black, auld 
lass?’’ 

“ Her Uncle Moses ’ull ha’ helped her a’ ready to find some 
on it, by t’ looks on her ! ” 

And, the drink being in Maria, she joined in the mockery. 

“ Don’t any on you hell divils think as Maria Carradus is 
short o’ brass ! ” she shouted, jingling some coppers noisily 
in her hand. 

And then the men laughed and humoured her with a 
certain rough kindliness, and some of her old flames told 
her that it was a shame that she had got nothing ; for then, 
at any rate, she could have stood them all drinks. 

“ And now,” she retorted, “ it’s you b lot as ’ull hev 

to stand drinks to auld Maria Carradus. D the stingy 

auld divil ! ” 

And then every one roared again, and thought they were 
having a fine joke. 

But almost all were sorry for Nell. There was something 
about the girl that compelled interest. Her beauty, her good- 
nature, her mother wit, her nonchalant tenderness, her 
generosity, appealed to them; and her very faults — her 


V BACCA QUEEN 143 

passion, her scornful independence, her combativeness — 
were regarded with a clannish sympathy. 

Perhaps the Scarthsiders were the most impressed with 
the wealth of the dead man, because of the change in 
fortune and position of William and his two sons, Reuben 
and Jo. 

“A grand house, with no rent to pay, for William, with 
^2,000 as well ; and ^2,000 a-piece to his sons, besides 
t’ rope spinning for Jo!” 

“ ^6,000 amang ’em ! ” said Dicky’s mother scornfully to 
Bella Lancaster. “ We’se wetch ’em, and see wedder or nut 
they git above wi’ theersells ! ” 

The neighbours could almost grasp such fortune, and some 
were very pleased, and others were filled with every-day 
jealousy. But when it came to considering a sum of 
^100,000 left to a girl in Germany, imagination failed. 
The idea was unreal — inconceivable — it savoured of the 
halfpenny novelette. It was most interesting to discuss, 
but it did not raise profound feeling, except among a certain 
class of dogged Socialistic working men who made it a text 
for earnest debate. 

Only at one point the matter touched them. It was one 
thing to pay rent to “Auld Jacky,” but it was quite another 
to be called upon every week by a smart young clerk from 
Glyn’s office. And that smart young clerk had a weary time 
on a Saturday, and constantly warned his friends that he would 
not stand it without a rise. But even smart young clerks con- 
sidered a long time before they turned rebel at Glyn & Son’s 
office. 

Among the girls there was much talk about Eleanor. They 
wondered what she was like, and what she would do “wi’ her 
brass,” and then they fell to discussing the still more interest 
ing subject of what they would do if they had had the 
windfall. 

It was a little pathetic to note that amongst the most to 
be desired benefits that money would bring were unlimited 
food, unlimited hats, and unlimited leisure. 


144 


r BACCA QUEEN 

Ben Sinkinson, who was a young man much given to 
calculation, propounded to Jane Ann Martin at the tobacco 
shop that the heiress would have at least £8 every day of her 
life! ^100,000 was something, but £8 a day was a terrible 
staggerer to the assemblage. 

“And her niver doin’ a hand’s turn to addle it ! ” sneered 
Jane Ann. 

“ Naa, niver a hand’s turn ! ” Ben responded. 

Whitsuntide was a time of very special excitement at 
Farbiggin. In the first place there is always a joyful feeling 
of anticipation connected with any holiday period. How 
the working world toils for the few short holiday hours into 
which it strives to put so much ! And yet, after all, how 
little, for the most part, is the happiness obtained, and 
many a wearied holiday-maker would be willing to confess 
that the anticipation does more good than the final 
realisation. 

However that may be, in Farbiggin a great deal of life 
seemed to culminate in Whitsuntide. The shops expected 
a harvest and got it, for many a pound had been carefully 
saved for the new Whitsuntide rig-out, and on Saturday the 
town was crowded with farmers and farm servants, the latter 
walking the streets in the full confidence of a half-year’s wage 
in their pockets. 

And all around, in the market-place and in the open streets, 
the public hiring for the next six months was in full swing. 
The strong, vigorous-looking men and maidens stood about 
laughing and chaffing good-naturedly with each other, and 
they tied themselves up with the most casual confidence for 
another six months, choosing their masters and mistresses 
for reasons quite impossible for an outsider to determine. 
There had actually been known cases in which the hired 
knew neither the name or the address of the hirer, the only 
detail of importance being that the farm was up a certain 
valley and that “ they kept thirteen cows.” 

“ Is ta for hire ? ” the farmer would ask of any likely boy 
or girl. 


145 


V BACCA QUEEN 

But as all of them, whether for hire or not, increased the 
crowd for the sheer delight of seeing the sight, the reply 
might be “Why, aye,” or it might be “ Naa, I’se stoppin’ 
on ! ” which latter reply meant that the last six months’ 
arrangement had been satisfactory on both sides. If, how- 
ever, the reply was in the affirmative, a short pointed argument 
would follow regarding the amount of stock kept, and work 
expected on the one side and wages required on the other. 

Girls, owing to their comparative scarcity, often waxed 
extremely independent, and had a good deal of their own 
way as regarded the money asked. Considering the high 
wages openly offered in the public streets of Farbiggin every 
six months, it was a puzzle to many how it was that girls in the 
town did not oftener make a plunge for country life, and leave 
the sights and smells of the factories for the pure air and 
healthy life of the hills and valleys. 

But even factory girls have their ideal of life, and, having it, 
they considered that life was more than meat, and to them 
poverty and squalor, if united with company and fun, were 
infinitely preferable to the more substantial benefits of high 
wages, good clothes, and abundant food, if united with 
country work, country hours, and comparative dulness. 

If there was one thing that Farbiggin Scarthsiders loved 
more than anything else it was company, and if anything they 
dreaded with a kind of frantic horror it was “ quiet.” 

Besides the Saturday hiring there was also the Saturday 
fair, and in the afternoon, town and country boys and girls all 
united in enjoying the bliss which could be found on the 
Moss Road, and on the wide stretch of rough shingle down 
by the river. 

On this particular Whitsuntide the tobacco shop employes 
turned out at the usual hour, and all with one accord surged 
up the street to swell the crowd and see what remained of 
the hiring. 

It was difficult to pass through at all, and carriages and 
carts could only edge their way in a deprecating manner in 
and out amongst the imperturbable crowd. 


146 V BACCA QUEEN 

The farmers evidently considered the Farbiggin streets as 
much their possession as one of their own ploughed fields 
Nothing could stir them from their strong position, and the 
argument respecting some bargain would be peacefully con- 
tinued in spite of frantic shouts and gesticulations from the 
perplexed drivers. Bicycle bells might ring as they would ; 
they had absolutely no effect whatever, and the rider was 
forced to descend scowling. 

“ Coom on ! Let’s git oorsells hired ! ” laughed Dicky 
Dixon courageously. 

“What wage is ta exin’, my lad?” asked a great stout farmer 
who had overheard the remark. 

Dicky looked up with a face full of innocent simplicity, 
“ Fifteen pound for t’ hawf year ! ” he remarked solemnly. 

The man looked down at the boy critically. Then he turned 
off with a grin. 

“ I’se exe t’ missis wedder or nut she wants a lad to rock oor 
lile un’ creddle ! ” he remarked scornfully. 

Dicky’s companions roared. Dicky made some well-accepted 
gesticulations of extreme contempt behind the big man’s back 
as he departed. 

“ Hullo ! ” called Jane Ann Martin excitedly to Nell, against 
whom she happened to be struggling in the crush. 

The crowd was very dense, but it grew worse as a carriage 
and pair tried to get through the mass of people. Back the 
crowd pushed, and loud laughing and angry mutterings respect- 
ing crushed toes and tumbled head-gear ran round. 

Nell looked up, but did not reply. 

“ Looks ta, Nell. Can’t ta see ?” cried the girl again. “ Why 
I do believe it’s ” 

Nell guessed in a moment who it was, but she was not going 
to discuss the matter with Jane Ann Martin. 

And Miss Mary saw the group of young people as they 
struggled in the crowd, and leant forward with her usual friendly 
nod and smile. Eleanor, following the direction of her eyes, 
also saw the group, and wondered. 

“ Some friends of mine who work in the tobacco factory, poor 


147 


T BACCA QUEEN 

children ! ” remarked Mary. “ Many of them live such plucky 
lives. I expect they are looking forward to a grand time this 
afternoon at the fair. Ah ! I do hope we shan’t hear of any of 
them getting into mischief.” 

“Mischief?” said Eleanor inquiringly, but Miss Glyn was 
too busy anxiously watching the manoeuvres of Johnson to get 
through the crowd to reply. 

Eleanor was intensely interested in all that she had seen that 
morning. What a very busy world this seemed to be. 

Miss Glyn had been driving her up and down the streets, 
pointing out all she thought interesting. She had explained to 
her the hiring, and had taken her down on to the Moss Road 
to show her the preparations for the grand fair. 

She had discussed many social difficulties with her, asking 
her opinion as if she really thought that she had one ; and 
Eleanor for the first time in her life found herself involved in 
the consideration of the perplexities and difficulties of a world 
which she had always thought of, as quite outside and beyond 
her own personality. 

So she was seated very upright and very eager. The wind had 
blown the light golden hair out from under her hat, and she 
looked from side to side of the carriage as if she could not bear 
to miss anything, and when the carriage had passed, the boys 
and girls followed the bright head with fascinated eyes. 

“ That’s her for sure ! ” said Ben. “ Now, Nell lass, thoo 
sees thy name sake ! ” 

“ She’s bonny, any road ! ” said Jane Ann. 

“ She’s nut sa bonny as t’ Bacca Queen ! ” retorted 
Dicky. 

“ What doos thoo kna aboot it?” retorted Jane Ann. 

“ Well, what will ta bet then ? ” and Dicky put his hand into 
his pocket. 

“ Theer’s na need to bet on it ! We all kna as there’s naa 
body to beat t’ ’Bacca Queen,” put in Ben insinuatingly. 

But Nell never could stand Ben when he tried to make up to 
her. Somehow his compliments felt like insults. 

“ Yon’s t’ bonniest lass i’ Farbiggin, Ben Sinkinson ! Thoo 


148 V BACCA QUEEN 

git thisell off and cooart her, theer’s a fine lad ! ” returned 
Nell jeeringly. And then she pushed her way through the 
crowd and hurried home. 


CHAPTER XVIII 

John Fleming was quite determined that by some means or 
other he would win Nell Carradus for his wife. He often 
wondered to himself why he cared so much. The girl was 
incessantly snubbing his efforts to please her, and he knew all 
about her disreputable home and bad upbringing, He knew 
also that the social position of a tobacco girl was, to put the 
case mildly, but moderate, and yet Fleming had come to 
Farbiggin to complete his education as a florist before settling 
down in the country to build up, according to the newest and 
most advanced methods, the small business which his father at 
present ran on old-fashioned lines. 

A good, steady, respectable working-class stock is an excellent 
stem on which to graft culture, only a persistent ambition is 
necessary for full fruition — but then John Fleming was certainly 
ambitious. For several generations gardening and the culture 
of flowers had been the family trade, and in John Fleming 
the trading instinct was developing alongside of the artistic 
one, and out of the love of flowers arose the love of all 
beautiful forms, and John Fleming, without knowing it, was 
rapidly becoming quite an artist. 

So, though he loved the little country village of Low Ridding, 
which was situated twenty miles to the south, he had persuaded 
his father to let him come to Farbiggin for a few years to gain 
more experience and to get wider chances of education. 

He was making the very best of his opportunities in learning 
his trade from his master, Mr. Fell, who was a thoroughly 
practical seedsman and florist, well known up and down the 
country for his excellence in landscape and other forms of 
gardening. 

Most of his evenings, however, were spent in the Schools of 


T BACCA QUEEN 149 

Science and Art. He grappled with science with the strong 
determination to overcome his village school handicap, and was 
ere long looked upon by the master as quite one of the most 
promising students in the school. In the art department he was 
conspicuous for his eye for form and precise accuracy in work, 
and already the master was wondering whether at last he had 
found a swan amongst a good proportion of respectable but 
infinitely tedious geese. Poor man, he was so weary of the 
constant demand for india-rubber, and few would imagine the 
relief it was to find a student who not only used his eyes and 
looked and saw what was there, but who had also the ability to 
put down what he saw on paper without indecision. 

Fleming boarded with the Fells, and in ordinary way would 
have had nothing whatever in common with TheScarth or Scarth- 
siders. But one day, very soon after his arrival in Farbiggin, 
he was accidentally drawn into Mr. Glyn’s mission room. To a 
young man fresh from a village, where the good old clergy- 
man’s capacity for conducting the public worship of God* was 
limited to great success in’ sending the worshippers either to 
sleep or into an advanced state of absent-mindedness, such a 
service as that of the Scarth Mission was immensely striking. 

Being an entire stranger to all forms of what might be termed 
revival religion, the warmth and the love and the intensity of 
the service seized hold on him with extraordinary force. 
Before long he noticed that there seemed to be two distinct 
lines of thought running through this novel religion. 

There was Mr. Glyn’s earnest, loving, personal faith and 
delight in Jesus Christ, and his son’s vigorous demand for a 
real practical outcome, in daily life, of the faith professed. 
Although quite unable to analyse his own religious standpoint, 
v Fleming was drawn instinctively into connection with the 
mission, and from thence into the Sunday school, where he 
became a member of Ryder Glyn’s Bible-class. 

Now Ryder brought all the powers of a highly cultured mind 
down into this particular work. To him there was nothing 
perfunctory, nothing that could be regarded as unimportant in 
the conduct of a Sunday afternoon Bible-class. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


750 

He took hold of the Bible as though he believed it to be the 
greatest marvel the world had ever seen. While touching it 
with reverence, he gloried in its worldfulness. He delighted in 
its age, its poetry, its style, and more than all in its marvellous 
character delineation, its strong common sense and its freedom 
from hysteria. 

Without exactly intending it, Ryder found himself actively 
seeking to counteract that hysterical tendency so conspicuous 
in many efforts like that of his father, for he saw only too 
clearly that while to some, the system was like life from the 
dead, to others it contained the poison of self-conceit, self- 
analysis, and self-glorification, and was often followed by a 
weakening of the fight against the outward arrays of wrong, and 
an almost monastic withdrawal of the person into the mystical 
region of feeling and self-protection. 

Ryder Glyn searched his Bible to find God — not morbid 
self-questioning, not even religion ; and before very many weeks 
had gone by, John Fleming found himself an earnest seeker 
after God, and followed his enthusiastic young teacher with 
the deepest attention, obtaining as a secondary result a refine- 
ment of culture and taste which a deep thorough study of and 
intimate acquaintance with the Bible brings. It was at the 
Sunday school that he met Nell for the first time. She was a 
regular attender of Mrs. Henry Glyn’s Bible-class, but her 
attendance there would not necessarily have thrown her in 
John Fleming’s way. 

During the winter months, however, special social evenings 
were arranged for by the school leaders, and Fleming and 
Nell Carradus found themselves in the choir that was formed 
for the practice of glees and carols. 

Catherine Glyn was the choir mistress, and she was not long 
in perceiving that in Nell, despite her rough manner and 
independent rudeness, there lay a keen musical instinct which 
was fast controlling a voice which without it might have turned 
out strong and coarse instead of rich and melodious. 

Nell would romp into the class with a jest for her neigh- 
bours, or a loud grumble at the weather or anything else not 


T BACCA QUEEN 15 1 

exactly to her mind, but she was never absent and never late, 
and when the class had settled down and the business begun, 
she watched the directions of the teacher with the utmost 
attention and became absolutely absorbed in what she was 
doing, being exceedingly irate if any of the other girls attempted 
the least disturbance. In fact, Catherine Glyn looked upon 
her as the policeman of the class. 

It was at these practices that Fleming was first struck with 
the extraordinary beauty of Nell’s face and the intense earnest- 
ness of her great eyes when she chose to be serious. From 
his place behind, amongst the tenors, he had full opportunity 
of examining her face in profile, and for admiring the turn of 
the head which even the old rough winter jacket and rabbit- 
skin fur could not wholly disguise. 

A natural guess would have been that a girl of Nell’s general 
style would have been distinguished as a contralto, but the 
charm of her voice lay in the fact that she took high soprano 
notes with such consummate ease and with such a roundness 
of tone, that listeners were often quite misled, and if they 
thought about the matter at all would have said they had been 
listening to a contralto. 

Owning the voice she had, Nell was of course the acknow- 
ledged leader of the sopranos, and these singing classes gave 
her the keenest delight. 

Catherine Glyn was, unfortunately, not very musical, but she 
knew just enough to produce a very agreeable result, and The 
Scarth Glee Company, as they termed themselves, were extremely 
pleased with themselves and their productions. 

Fleming felt that he got nearer to Nell on these Monday 
evenings than during those rathei awkward occasions when 
she agreed to go out walking with him. He understood quite 
clearly that Nell required making. He had a habit of regarding 
her as a rough sketch, charming in its roughness and charming 
in its prophecy of what the future picture might be. 

But sometimes, as he very well knew, rough sketches never 
developed into pictures, or if they did the roughness became 
more exaggerated, to the spoiling of the original inspiration ; 


152 


V BACCA QUEEN 


so the young man suffered much when he found the wrong 
side of Nell’s character coming out too clearly. 

Once or twice she had showed him enough of her real self, 
or her real self at that particular moment, to give him hopes 
that the soul within the girl would some day be equal to the 
beautiful exterior. 

So, on occasion, he had taken upon himself to lecture Nell, 
but she had always turned the remark with a laughing “ Ger 
oot, Jack ! Thee fry thy awn fish, and niver heed mine ! ” or 
some like mockery. 

So he was becoming rather chary of entering into combat 
with her ; yet when he discontinued his lectures she imme- 
diately noted the fact, and had lately been taunting him with 
having given them up. 

The actual process of development did not, however, exactly 
worry or discourage Fleming. Was he not working out his 
own life on to a higher platform ? Then he must surely expect 
that some corresponding process should go on in Nell. He 
had learnt to wait patiently for the results of many a floral 
experiment, and he was willing to wait for Nell, for he saw 
that the girl was only just awakening, and as he meant to rise 
himself, so he imagined that Nell was capable of rising with him. 

Then, again, in a fit of unusual confidence Nell had once 
told him the history of her own birth, and Fleming, having a 
curious strain of imagination running through his apparently 
rather imperturbable exterior, secretly glorified Nell into the 
position of a disguised gentlewoman. He perhaps forgot that 
so far Nell had not come under that influence of all influences 
for refinement, the realisation of God in her own life; and 
until she was prepared to let herself go to be moulded by the 
Divine, she was still like an infant crying in the night, and 
with no language but a cry. And John was unaware that the 
vague cry had already ascended from that turbulent heart. 

It would be difficult to say exactly how Nell regarded the 
attentions of her earnest-minded suitor. He was of course far 
the most important youth seeking her favour; but at times he 
bored her. She felt when with him that some intangible yoke 


T BACCA OUEEN 


153 


was oppressing her, and if she kept company with him one 
night she chose another squire the next. As she confided to 
her friend Sarah, “Two nights yan efter t’ tudder wi’ yon quiet 
lad is ower many for ma.” 

Still, she thought of him with a proprietary pleasure, and 
her disgust would have made itself heard in scornful insinua- 
tions if he had in ever so small a degree turned his attentions 
in other directions, and in her consideration of many passing 
events she instinctively wondered what “ yon Jack Fleming 
wad think on it.” 

If he had only known it, Fleming was missing the one royal 
road to Nell’s earnest consideration and possible heart affection 
by so rigorously refraining from talking about himself and 
his own affairs. He was too eager to enter into her life, too 
desirous of showing an interest in her concerns. But she, 
knowing full well the dulness and the sordidness of her 
existence, and not yet choosing to acknowledge to him her 
own overpowering ambitions and strivings, felt bored and 
oppressed at his solicitude. 

But if he had confided to her his ambitions and his strivings, 
things might have been different. She would certainly have 
treated them with kindly respect, and she might even have 
admitted him within the circle of those whom, in her own 
unique manner, she mothered. 

When Nell turned away from the hiring with her mind all 
full of the sight of Eleanor and Miss Glyn driving in peace 
and comfort down the street, it was to find her mother lying 
drunk on the floor, the fire out, and the children wailing. 

She gave way to a violent oath, and, banging the door to, 
she locked it. Quickly she lighted the fire and straightened 
things up. With a rough but kindly word she quieted the 
children, giving each a copper with the promise that they might 
spend the afternoon on the Moss Road. 

She took not the slightest notice of the drunken woman, 
satisfied the hungry children and herself, and then, despatching 
the children with rejoicing hearts to the scene of revelry, she 
remained to clear everything up. 

11 


154 


T BACCA OUEEN 


And so she found herself alone with her mother and her 
own heart. Every now and again the woman roused herself 
and muttered incoherently, but the girl merely went on with 
her business, washing the floor and polishing the grate, gene- 
rally doing her best for the place. 

When all was comfortable again, she attended to her own 
person. She put aside the tobacco-reeking garments in which 
she had toiled all the week, and then, as she would have 
expressed it, “weshed hersell.” 

She took down her long masses of hair, brushing them until 
they shone again, and then wound coil after coil round her 
head. Happily Nell had an unusual objection to curling-pins, 
the delight of the mill-girl and the duchess alike. She had 
noticed that quantities of artificial curls did not become her, 
and made her look common, and, moreover, that neither Miss 
Mary nor her teacher tormented themselves or their hair with 
them, and besides she had plenty of loose natural curlets all 
round her brow, and these she arranged with dainty skill. 
She looked at herself critically, but when she caught sight of 
her tobacco-stained hands contrasting so strongly with the 
white shapely arms raised to her head, she dropped them with 
a sudden gesture of impatience. Then an idea seemed to 
tickle her, for she laughed lightly and, nodding to her own 
reflection, remarked, “ Eye, eye, lady arms and ’bacca lass 
hands for Nell, and that’s how it ’ull be to t’ finish ! ” Then 
she donned her Saturday frock, and finished herself off with 
a new white straw hat and a snowy muslin scarf; and after 
putting the finishing touches, she turned away from the glass 
and back into the front kitchen, where she stood for a moment 
meditating as to her plans for the afternoon. 

She opened the door and looked out, but there was nothing 
to see but the dingy houses opposite and the deep blue strip 
of sky exactly overhead. And there was nothing to hear but 
the sound of violent quarrelling next door, and the haunting 
wail of a baby opposite. Nell could not endure to hear a 
baby cry, so she turned indoors again. There was nothing 
of interest there, certainly. Her mother was still asleep, and 


155 


T BACCA QUEEN 

the girl came close up and looked down upon her. If looks 
could stab, Maria Carradus would have been a dead woman 
that bright holiday afternoon. 

So she left the cottage, leaving the door closed, with the 
key inside. She knocked at the opposite house, and received 
in reply the usual “ Coom in ! ” 

“ Mrs. Jameson, I’se take it kindly if you’ll hev an eye 
across t’ road. She’s dead drunk, but she’ll last while I get 
back. Nobbut I’se left t’ key in t’ door.” 

Mrs. Jameson looked up. She had a pleasant, wholesome 
face, but looked worn-out with the care of the wailing infant 
lying on her knee. “ A’ reet ! Nell lass ; oor Sarah ’ull be 
in directly. She’s only gone to get some things for Sunda’, 
and we’ll see as naabody meddles wi’ t’ hoose.” 
a T’ lile ’un is na better ? ” queried Nell. 

“ Naa, I can’t tell what ails it ! ” 

" Food! ” said Nell decidedly. 

“ Eye happen, but I do my best. T’ doctor he says sugar 
o’ milk — but that’s brass, brass,” and the woman sighed. 

“ Eh, Mrs. Jameson, it bothers me how you and your Sarah 
can’t think as God cares for workin’ folk when he lets their 
bairns die for want o’ t’ reet food ! ” 

“ Naa, I don’t kna, Nell. God help us,” said the woman 
patiently. “The Lord’s will be done, Nell. Folk can’t go 
agen t’ Lord ; ” and she raised her baby up to her face and 
kissed the flabby little cheeks passionately. 

“ Naabody can say as it’s t’ Lord’s will as yon babby should 
die o’ starvation,” said Nell to herself as she hastened down 
the narrow yard. Then she put her hand into her pocket, and 
drawing out a handful of change, counted it meditatively. 
Could she ? Why yes ; she was well and strong, and could 
surely do without something or other. She would take good 
care that her mother got very little off her this coming week, 
and any way, she need not go all round the fair as she had 
intended. What about those gloves she had meant to buy ? 
She looked at her hands. “They can wait another week,’ she 
thought to herself, “ and happen t’ babby can’t !” 


156 T BACCA QUEEN 

So she went on to the chemist’s and ordered the required 
sugar of milk and a tin of patent food, and putting down the 
hard-earned money, directed that they should be sent to Mrs. 
Jameson’s. “ And tell t’ lad to say as it’s no matter wha sent 
’em, but as they are paid for ! ” 

And away she hurried off down to the Moss Road to see 
what was to be seen with the minimum of payment. 

Dr. Maddison came into the shop a few moments after- 
wards, and the chemist, who was a chatty man, told him the 
little incident, and the doctor went off meditating on the 
curiosities of humanity. 


CHAPTER XIX 

There was more excitement than usual this year on the Moss 
Road, and as Nell approached the scene of the fair she could 
hear the noise from a considerable distance. 

What could be more exhilarating than to hear six bands at 
once, all playing different tunes, and each possessed of a large 
untuned drum ? 

Rattles, shooting galleries, cheap jacks, and all sorts of 
attraction advocates, formed a strong undercurrent to the noise 
of the bands, while the shrieks from the merry-go-rounds 
seemed to be little more than strong emphatics of the lesser 
shrieks of the boys and girls who thronged them. 

And it was by no means only the rising generation who took 
active part in the frivolities. Grown-up people were in strong 
evidence, taking their pleasure, it is true, in some cases some- 
what apologetically, but nevertheless taking it. 

What did the tawdriness of the entertainers, or the mud 
under foot, matter? Every one was quite used to mud, at 
any rate, and with pockets full of Saturday coppers who 
could resist going in for all that could be afforded ? 

Nell found plenty of companions as she strolled up and 
down ; but she would not be tempted into entering any of the 
booths. No, not even the Variety Entertainment, the Fat 


T BACCA QUEEN 157 

Woman, the Living Mermaid, or the Tortures of the Inquisition, 
could move her from her steady purpose. 

Ben Sinkinson was loudly prominent. Flush of money 
through some lucky overtime, he was treating gaily, and in 
his treatings he did not forget, either for his companions or 
himself, the beer booths, which the magistrates allowed to be 
erected on the ground. 

Year after year the brewers gained the profit from these 
erections, and the town had to pay the piper when the 
expenses of the court and jail were reckoned up. 

But if the town was contented, the matter could concern 
no one else, and any Scarthside heart-breaks were of no real 
importance. 

Nell’s eyes were opened wider than ever before on this 
fair day; and as she looked at one after another of her 
acquaintances as they reeled about in high spirits, and over- 
flowing with noisy mirth and ribald jests, a new disgust seized 
her, and she shrank back with a strange sensitiveness. 

She absolutely refused to be treated by any one. 

“ Naa, lads ! Off wi’ ya a’. I hev n’t brass to loss misell 
on this rubbish. It tak’s me ower lang to addle, and if I can’t 
loss my awn, I’se nut loss naabody’s else’s.” 

So she passed through, and on to the shingle, to watch the 
swinging boats. 

Nell dearly loved swinging, and a girlish temptation seized 
her to have a try. Just the sort of temptation that seizes all 
healthy young girls who have the chance of playing lawn 
tennis, hocky, or golf. 

“ Coom, Dicky ! ” she called, as she saw him standing white 
and wistful close by. “ Coom, let’s away,” and she handed the 
necessary payment to the manager. 

Dicky rejoicingly clambered into the boat and took hold of 
his rope. 

“ Why,” cried Ben, who had followed her, “ look, theer’s t’ 
’Bacca Queen wi’ her lile chap again ! Coom on, Janie, my 
lass. We’se swing oor sells higher nor yon two ! ” 

“ I bet tha’ hawf a sovereign thoo’l nut ! ” cried Dicky gaily, 


158 r DACCA QUEEN 

as if he possessed a pocketful, and he pulled his rope and 
set the boat swinging. 

Nell pulled her rope alternately with him, and away 
they went. 

“Now, Jane, for thy life!” cried Ben noisily; and she 
obediently pulled her best. 

Higher and higher the boats went, and harder and harder 
the occupants pulled. A little crowd gathered round, and 
bets were taken freely. Nell and Dicky were the favourites, 
but cheers and counter cheers responded. 

Nell, all aglow with the exercise, strained every nerve. 

“ Harder, harder, Dicky ! ” she cried excitedly. “ Look, 
we’se beaten ’em ! ” 

“ Naa, naa, thoo hes’unt ; Ben’s higher ! ” shouted the 
crowd. 

The shout caused Nell to make a still mightier effort, and 
to urge her companion on. “Niver give in, Dicky my lad, 
we’se beat ’em yet.” 

Another strong pull from Dicky, and then a little gasping 
cry. “ Eh, Nell ! Nell ! ” 

Game to the last, Dicky gave one final pull, then let the 
rope go suddenly out of his hands, and sank back, striking his 
head against the side of the little boat. 

Nell in a moment ceased her efforts, and pulling the rope 
violently in the opposite direction, stopped the boat with 
a shock. 

“ Dicky, Dicky ! ” she cried wildly. “ Here, you fellers ; 
can’t ya see as he’s laamed his sell ! ” 

Instantly eager hands were stretched forward to stop the 
uneasy quivering of the boat, and Nell clambered over the seat 
to Dicky. He was deathly pale, and lay quite still. But his 
face was not paler than that of the girl as she stooped 
over him, and raised him up into a sitting posture on 
the little narrow seat. 

How light the child was ! She could carry him home quite 
well. It was her fault entirely. No one else should touch 
him. 


T BACCA QUEEN 159 

“Nell, thoo can’t mannige him, alaan ! ” cried one and 
another. 

“ Ger oot ! ” she responded fiercely. “ Let ma be ! ” 

She stood up to her full height, in all the power of her 
young strength, and there was not one in the crowd who dared 
say a second time that she could not do it. 

Tenderly she lifted him in her firm lissom arms ; tenderly 
she settled his head against her shoulder, as if he had been a 
baby, and without a glance to the crowd, who followed her out 
of abundant curiosity, she walked steadily away. 

A policeman came up to see what was the matter, and the 
crowd shouted all manner of explanations, but Nell, pausing 
for an instant, said simply, “It’s a’ reet. He’s laamed his 
sell and I’se tekin’ him yam. Nell Carradus thoo knas ! ” 

The policeman looked at her and nodded. He knew all 
about Nell Carradus, for he had said many a cordial “ Good- 
night ” to her as she passed to and fro during her midnight 
nursing ventures. So he let her pass, and she bore the boy 
through the fair, and along the High Street, and away up The 
Scarth to his home. 

Now and again she glanced at the face anxiously to see if 
there were any sign of his awakening, but there was none ; but 
she could feel his weak breathing coming and going against 
the strong panting of her own heart. 

As she laboured up one of the steepest bits of The Scarth 
she was overpoweringly relieved to see the cheerful face of Dr. 
Maddison appear round a corner of the lane. 

As the crowd came surging up, he started instinctively 
forward and looked for the cause of the tumult. 

“ A fight,” he thought to himself disgustedly. But when 
he saw white-faced Nell and her burden, he was instant 
attention. 

“ Nell ! ” he cried. 

“ Oh, Doctor ! ” she burst forth, “ come with ma quick — 
quick, I’se kilt him ! ” 

Her eyes were brimming with tears, which she could not 
wipe away because of the burden she carried. 


160 T BACCA QUEEN 

The big burly doctor took the boy from out of the girl’s 
exhausted arms, and Nell let him go because he was Dr. 
Maddison, and for that reason only, and in another moment 
they had reached the cottage, where they found Mrs. Dixon 
already on the doorstep, wringing her hands and filling the air 
with lamentations. 

For of course many talebearers, eager for the joy of first 
proclaiming the mournful intelligence, had rushed on in front 
of the crowd, and the one to gain the honour was Kitty Benson, 
the same little girl who had taunted Dicky with his faithless- 
ness on the eventful day when the ’Bacca Queen had chosen 
him for her squire, and without a moment’s delay she had 
shouted out as she reached the cottage door — 

“ Eh, Mrs. Dixon, your Dicky’s kilt ! ” 

Mrs. Dixon had leaped forward, all the protective, tiger-like 
motherhood awakening in an instant, but knowing as she did 
that Scarth stories did not always hold water, and that Kitty 
Benson’s especially were somewhat doubtful, she had immedi- 
ately seized the girl by the shoulders and cried out — 

“ Wha said saa ? ” 

“Naabody!” said Kitty, struggling, “but Nell’s bringin’ 
him up ! ” 

And almost immediately the truth of the child’s words 
were partly verified, and the woman saw for herself the still 
white face of her son in the arms of the doctor. 

The crowd surged round the cottage door, but Dr. Maddison 
was equal to any occasion of this sort. 

He set down his burden, and then told the mother to lock 
the door. She would have liked to have remonstrated, for no 
Scarthsider liked to run counter to public opinion unnecessarily, 
and Mrs. Dixon knew well that she would later have something 
to put up with from the tongues of neighbours, who would 
think that they had a perfect right of entry on such an 
auspicious occasion ; but she thought again in a flash that she 
could lay all the blame on the doctor afterwards, and every one 
would perfectly comprehend that “ she could not offer to go 
agen him ! ” 


V BACCA QUEEN 161 

So the door was locked, and the crowd scattered high and 
low to tell the news. 

As the doctor turned to do his duty he called upon Nell to 
help him. He impatiently thrust aside the querulous mother, 
who was more intent on expounding the depths of her own 
affection for the boy, than in helping to keep the life in 
him. 

For a moment the doctor thought that he was for the first 
time in his experience going to find Nell a failure, for in her 
agony of self-reproach she seemed quite unnerved, but he soon 
cured her by saying with assumed anger — 

“ Hang it all, Nell, I hope to goodness that you are not 
preparing to play the fool ? ” 

Nell’s pride rose, and in another moment she laid aside her 
hat and settled herself to follow quietly and steadily the 
doctor’s directions, and he breathed again. 

Dicky was put to bed, and as the doctor made his careful 
examination, Nell and the parents stood looking on in intense 
anxiety. 

It was some time before the unconsciousness left him, but 
at last he opened his eyes and looked wonderingly round. 
Then, seeing Nell bending over him, he smiled feebly. 
Then the eyes closed again. 

The doctor came up, and again felt his pulse and listened to 
his breathing. 

“ That is natural sleep ! ” he remarked. “ Keep watch over 
him, Nell, and if he wakes give him some warm milk. Don’t 
wake him on any account. I will call in again to-night.” 

He went downstairs, but before leaving he decided to deliver 
his soul to the father and mother on a subject on which he felt 
strongly, and on which he held opinions diametrically opposed 
to those of his patients on The Scarth. 

“ Now remember, Mrs. Dixon. This is a critical case. I 
mean by that, that the boy may or may not get over this time. 
I can’t tell yet, but he must have quiet. You or his father or 
Nell Carradus may go up to him, but no one else 1 Do you 
understand? ” 


r 


162 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“But there’s folk as ” began the woman. 

“ Folks will have to mind their own business. Do you 
think that it looks well for you to let your boy die for the sake 
of pleasing your neighbours? Now, once for all, do you 
understand, or do you not?” 

“ I’ll see as she behaves ! ” remarked the father as he sat by 
the fireside. Though he kept his seat for want of manners, he 
had a great respect for the doctor. 

“ Well, Sam, I know that you have some amount of sense, 
and I leave it with you. I’ll tell you what,” he continued — 
“now look here : I’ll throw up the case! I’ll never come 
near the place again, send for me as you may, if I hear that 
any one but those I have mentioned have been upstairs for the 
next forty-eight hours ! ” 

At last Mrs. Dixon looked rather impressed by the awful 
threat, and the doctor, smiling to himself, walked away. 

“ What fools these women are,” he thought. “Yet I should 
go again, even if she allowed the whole tribe up. I know I 
should. Possibly, after all, it is I who am the fool ! ” 

So Nell watched patiently by Dicky, and the father and 
mother wandered in and out uneasily, without apparently ques- 
tioning her right to be head nurse. 

Early in the evening the boy awoke, and Nell persuaded him 
to drink a little milk according to the doctor’s orders. 

At first he shook his head. 

“Naa, I’se tired, Nell ! ” 

But Nell firmly raised him up with her left hand and arm. 

“ Naa, Dicky, be a good lad ! Thoo mun do as thoo’s 
telt ! ” 

Dicky drank the milk, and seemed revived thereby. 

“My head’s bad, Nell,” he whispered ; “it feels as if I was 
swayin’ right up in t’ sky ! ” 

Nell groaned inwardly. “ Eh, but thoo will be better soon, 
lad ! Theer ! ” and she laid him back carefully. “ Now thoo 
moant talk, but get thy sell to sleep again ! ” 

He shut his eyes and lay quite still for some time, and the 
girl sat with her hands in her lap, looking at him. 


T BACCA QUEEN 163 

But Dicky was far from sleep, and presently he remarked 
wearily, without opening his eyes, “ I wonder if this is t’ 
finish ! ” and he put his hand up to his head. 

“ Naa, naa, lad,” said Nell soothingly, laying her cool hand 
on his brow, “Thoo’l be a’ reet by Monda’, or happen 
Tuesda’.” 

“Tuesda’s Ottarthwaite. Eh, I hope I shall get!” and a 
slight animation came into the voice. 

Nell very much doubted it, but she suddenly remembered 
that she had a bottle of Eau de Cologne at home, which 
Catherine Glyn had presented to her at Christmas. 

This particular bottle had been carefully preserved, and she 
had only used from it now and again when a strong yearning 
had passed over her for a taste of the refinements of life. 

As Mrs. Dixon came upstairs opportunely, she thought that 
she would go and fetch it. 

“ I’se be back directly, Dicky ! ” And away she ran to her 
own home, which was only a few doors off. 

She had forgotten all about her mother, whom she found 
sitting over a cup of weak tea. 

“Thoo’s coomed at last, Nell ! ” she remarked peevishly. 

“ Eye, but not to bide. Thoo’s poor company ! ” 

She hurried upstairs, and, securing what she wanted, went 
back to her patient. On the way she came upon Jane and 
Ben. She tried to take no notice, but Jane called out 
exultingly. 

“ Wha beat, my lass ! ” But so great was the wonder in 
Nell’s heart at such callousness, that she could not even make 
a retort. 

When the doctor called again, Dicky was decidedly better, 
and he congratulated Nell on her care. He pitied the girl, for 
she seemed to be taking this case to heart to a most unusual 
degree. 

“ You are a good lass ! ” he said kindly. 

“ Good ! ” returned Nell, under her breath. “ Doctor, it was 
me as was to blame. It was me as forced him to overdo his 
self. Me as knew all the time, if I only thought, that he 


164 r £ACCA g'C/EFiV’ 

ought’ent never to have done no such thing ! And if he 
dies Eh, I could kill myself ! ” 

“ By Jove,” thought the doctor, “ and I believe she could ! ” 

He put his hand on her shoulder. “ My dear, nothing could 
have saved the boy for very long. He was stricken for death 
three months ago. Never blame yourself. You want your 
strength for making the rest of his life as happy as you can.” 

And then Fleming entered the house, for Nell could hear 
his voice down below. 

“ There’s John Fleming downstairs. He wants me, happen ! 
I’se best go and tell him I can’t go to-night ! I promised him 
to go out walkin’,” she explained, and a faint blush struggled 
up over her cheeks. 

“ Then go ! ” said the doctor brightly. “ A healthy breath 
of air will do you all the good in the world. Now off with 
you ! ” as Nell was about to make a stubborn resistance. “ I 
may want you a good deal over this case, so no nonsense ! 
They can manage for a couple of hours, and I wish to leave 
you in charge to-night, if you are willing.” 

The doctor went downstairs and looked critically at the 
young man standing in the doorway with his cap in his 
hand. 

“ John Fleming ? ” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ You’ve come for Nell Carradus > You’ve done right. 
Take her for a fine blow on the Fell, and then give her a 
right down good supper somewhere or other, Green Dragon 
preferred, and land her back here at io o’clock sharp. Do you 
understand ? ” 

“I’ll do my very best, sir!” he replied firmly. Then he 
added, “ That is, if she will let me ! ” 

“ Nell ! ” said the doctor. “ You quite understand ? I have 
given your young man directions, and my directions have 
always to be obeyed ! ” 

So Nell acquiesced, for she suddenly felt within herself that 
she must get out of that house, and out of sight of that thin, 
pale face, or she would go mad. So in a short time she and 


T BACCA QUEEN 165 

Fleming were wandering up on to the Fell on this perfect early 
June evening. 

Neither of them spoke for some time. Nell was too busy 
controlling herself, and Fleming was wondering what he could 
possibly say to comfort his companion. Then as they gained 
the higher ground, and were walking over the springy down, 
Nell startled him by saying solemnly — 

“ Fse a murderess, Jack ! ” 

The abandoned grief in the girl’s voice struck him with 
something akin to horror. He had often longed for Nell to 
be serious, but this wild anguish was quite beyond his 
reckoning. 

“ Oh, no, Nell ! ” he remonstrated feebly. 

“ But I is ! I is ! ” she cried. “ Oh, sit down, do ! Oh, my 
God ! ” and she sank down on the short turfy bank, and 
bending her head down on to her arms, sobbed bitterly. “ Oh, 
Dicky, Dicky!” she moaned, “and it was me as did it! Oh, 
Dicky darlin’, my lile sweetheart ! ” 

John sat down beside her, feeling uncommonly helpless. 

“Nell, dear,” he began quietly, “won’t you tell me all about 
it ? I can’t bear to see you crying like this ! ” 

Then, with a wonderful amount of tact, he drew the story 
bit by bit from the distressed girl, and soon discovered for 
himself how much and how little blame really attached to her. 

_ He was incapable of flattery, and so with absolute candour he 
admitted that she had been in some part to blame, but only 
thoughtlessly ; but that, as she very well knew, Dicky could 
not possibly live the year out. 

But Nell could not take this as any comfort, and she still 
panted with unbearable remorse. 

“ But for me — me to have hurt him, poor lile feller ! Oh, 
Jack, thoo means kindly, but I’s daft — daft to-neet. I’se 
niver, niver forgive mysell. So it’s nut likely as God will ! ” 

“If a man die, shall he live again?” John uttered the 
words aloud as if he had hardly intended them. 

“ What did ta say ? ” 

“ Oh, nothing much. I was only wondering about some- 


T BACCA OUEEN 


166 

thing I read this morning in the Bible, words written by a 
terribly unhappy man thousands of years ago.” 

“ Say it agen ! ” 

“ If a man die, shall he live again ! Nell, do you know I 
believe that is the greatest question in the world.” 

On that lovely calm summer night it seemed as though 
there could be no such thing as death, but if death, then 
surely, surely life to follow ! 

“ Dicky will ! ” said Nell confidently. “ I’se niver think a 
lile lad like Dicky ’ll get snuffed out like a candle ! ” 

“ No ! ” said John, absently picking up some last year’s 
beech fruits, and turning the decaying shells over in his palm. 

“ It meks naa odds aboot me ! ” said Nell. “ There’s been 
no luck for me i’ this world, and I’se nut keen on tryin’ 
t’other! Look, Jack, at yon lile tree: that’s grawn oot o’ 
summut dead. Happen Dicky’s be like yon ! ” and she laughed 
a short little laugh. “ But think on theer’s many a lot o’ 
beech nuts as niver comes to trees. They’re nobbut husks, 
and they rot ! ” 

“Thou wilt not leave us in the dust. 

Thou madest man, we know not why — 

He thinks he was not made to die — 

And Thou hast made him, Thou art just ! ” 

Nell turned to her companion quickly. It was somewhat 
new to hear him quoting the Bible and repeating poetry to her. 
She wondered what had come to him. 

“ Whar did ta lam yon ? ” 

“ It’s out of a book of Tennyson’s poems, in one where he 
writes about a dear friend of his whom he had lost. I think 
you would like some parts of Tennyson, Nell, if you would 
read it.” 

“ Dost ta kna, Jack, as thoo’s a queer lad ! ” 

“Am I? And, Nell, do you know that you are a queer 
girl?” 

“ Eye, weel enough ! ” 

“Dear Nell,” and John drew a little closer, and spoke im- 


T BACCA QUEEN 167 

petuously, “have you never longed vto be different, to be better 
off, better educated, better ” 

“ Hev I what, John Fleming?” and she turned on him 
fiercely. “ Does ta think as I don’t kna as I’se an ignorant 
wastrel — bred and born in sin — with niver a chance in this 
world, let alone any other ! Does ta think I don’t kna as God 
Himself niver meant Nell Carradus to be born? Can a clean 
thing coom out of an unclean ? That’s in thy Bible. From 
what part o’ hell, thinks ta, did t’ Divil look to find t’ spirit as 
went intull t’ babby as landed when Maria Carradus ruined 
hersell ? Don’t I kna weel enough as I’se a Divil’s lass ? I’se 
sure it’s not for want o’ tellin’ ! ” 

“Oh, Nell! but God ” 

But the girl sprang to her feet. “Tell me, Jack Fleming! 
If God hed cared, couldn’t He ha’ managed different ? ” 

“Nell, Nell, how dare you !” 

“ Dare ! Oh, I dare weel enough ! ” and she laughed 
mockingly. 

“ Oh, Nell, but think of all the love of the Father in heaven 
— why, you know God Himself came down on earth to die for 
you and me ! Think of what a Father’s love means ? ” 

The question was, perhaps, at the moment unfortunate. 

“ Father ! Love ! Jack Fleming, talk sense ! Father’s 
love ? What do I kna aboot it ? I’se heard auld Geordie 
Glyn, as should ha’ mair sense — aye, and t’ young ’un and all 
— preach o’ t’ father-love and mother-love till 1’se been fair 
crazy. What do such as them kna aboot such as us ? Why, 
theer’s many a hundred in Farbiggin as hes niver kent a 
father’s love. For why? Theer’s niver been a father near 

’em ! And as for t’ mother Think of my mother and 

love in t’ saam breath ! ” 

“Then if you cannot understand quite so easily, the heavenly 
Father will be the more pitiful, and His love will be the 
greater ! ” 

“ I tell tha, I kna nowt aboot love. Theer’s naabody’s iver 
loved me ! ” 

To his credit, John suppressed the obvious rejoinder. 


i68 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ But, Nell, it is not true that you do not know love ! You 
yourself love at this very moment ! ” 

“ Wha?” 

“ Dicky ! ” 

He was determined to say it — determined, if possible, to 
help this girl who had abandoned herself before him in such 
an unexpected manner. 

“ Oh, Jack, thoo’s reet ! ” and she sat down again wearily. 
“ Poor, poor lile Dicky ! ” 

“ Like as Nell Carradus pitieth naughty, troublesome Dicky, 
so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him ! ” said John simply. 
“ Oh, dear Nell, do try to understand how God feels to you by 
how you feel towards Dicky.” But the girl sat silently pluck- 
ing at the grass at her side. “And, Nell dear,” and he took 
her hand firmly, “ if you would only let me help you. If you 
would like to rise, let us both go together. Let me teach you 
what I know ; I know very little, but I am learning, and we 
could learn together ! Nell, dear, do ! ” 

But Nell had gone far enough for one night, and she suddenly 
shrank into herself again. 

“ It’s gettin’ late now. Happen we’d best be goin’ ! ” and 
she pulled her hand away. 

John drew back a little disappointed. “ But you’ll let me 
do for you what the doctor said ? ” 

She rose and looked at his anxious countenance. “ Why, 
eye, I suppose so. I’se sure ther’ll be nowt to itt at oor hoose 
to-neet ! Eh, I is that tired ! ” 

“ You’ll feel much better directly ! ” said John cheerfully. 
After all, he could not help feeling that he had made distinct 
progress. 

So he gave her the best supper the Green Dragon afforded 
and brought her safely back for her night’s vigil at the exact 
time the doctor had said. 


T DACCA QUEEN 


169 


CHAPTER XX 

In consequence of strict adherence to doctor’s orders Dicky 
revived for the time being, and by Monday he was able to get 
up and sit by the window, and was in fact rapidly becoming 
his old bright self again in a diminished degree. 

Such sudden changes up and down were new to be expected ; 
but Dicky, feeling his old life strong upon him again, began to 
excite himself over his desire to go to Ottarthwaite on the 
following day. He first broached the subject to his mother, 
knowing in his cute young brain that in her he would find the 
point of least resistance. 

She having ceased beating her “ poor lile lad,” was now 
engaged in idolising him ; and with an easy good-nature and 
a dogged combativeness on her offspring’s behalf, she told him 
that of course he should go, “ Wha was to stop him ? ” 

And Dicky, taking her acquiescence for what it was worth, 
yet strengthened in some degree by it, laid siege to Nell the 
next time she appeared. 

“ I’se a’ reet for to-morra ! Oor lile Bella fetched me my 
tickut yesterda’ ! ” 

Nell looked at the slip of a boy as he sat in the big chair at 
the crookedly built window, with its small panes of common 
glass, and shook her head slowly. 

“ Why, Dicky lad, does ta want to gaa sa badly ? ” 

“ Eh, he does ! ” burst in his mother, who, now that the 
immediate danger was over, felt able to pour forth what had 
been rankling in her mind for some time. 

“ Eh, he does, my lass ! And if it hadn’t a bin for thee, 
Nell Carradus, he wad ha’ gone reet enough ! It’s summat for 
thee to coom in, nursin’ and doing’, but by a’ I hear it was thee 
as med th’ job, and it’s thee as should mend it ! ” 

But Dicky interrupted the flow. 

“ Shoot oop, mother ! I’se ha naabody say out agen Nell ! 
She’s worth a’ t’ lasses i’ Farbiggin, and she’ll git me to Ottar- 
thwaite, I ken she will ! ” 


12 


170 T BACCA QUEEN 

Still Nell hesitated. The mother’s words she felt were 
utterly true. She had certainly been the unthinking cause of 
spoiling Dicky’s innocent pleasure. And yet what could 
she do? 

Here was probably the last real delight the child had the 
chance of in this world. The thought was exceeding bitter 
to her. 

“Nell, darlin’, speak !” cried Dicky. “Oh Nell, I ken as 
I can’t run ! My legs feels that queer ! But I’d like to see Tom 
run ! He’ll beat ’em a’ ; I shouldn’t keer, nobbut I could 
wetch t’ raas ! And I’d like to see them girt trees yance mair, 
and hear t’ band and wetch t’ balloons ! ” 

Nell saw perfectly clearly that the boy was absolutely unfit 
for the day’s expedition as arranged. The children started 
at ten o’clock, in the long canal barges, reaching the park at 
midday, and they did not return until the evening. Such a 
prolonged effort was certainly out of the question for Dicky 
in his present state. 

“Dicky, my lad, thoo can’t! thoo can’t, indeed! Thoo 
could niver manige it. Niver heed. I’se bide wi’ tha, and 
I’se sing to tha, and do iverything I can to mek fun ! ” 

But Dicky, being still weak, allowed the unworthy tears to 
come into his eyes, and he cried out, “ Oh Nell, thoo might ! 
thoo might ! ” just as though she possessed that unlimited and 
wonder-working power which poor mortals have stretched out 
after from countless ages. “ Eh, thoo might ! ” he reiterated ; 
“ I’se be away afoor t’ next year ! ” and the boy rose from his 
seat and stood trembling with the effort. 

“ Look’s ta, Nell Carradus, what thoo’s brawt him tull ! ” 
whimpered the mother. “ He was hearty enough t’ last week, 
and now he’ll ha’ missed his prize at t’ Sunda’ school — for how 
could he gaa yesterday when he was i’ bed ! — and now t’ school 
treat ! What iver could a girt lass like thee ha’ bin wantin’ 
swayin’ and doin’ ! It caps me a’ togither ! But thoo aulus 
was a wild un ! ” 

Nell’s cheeks flushed hotly, and she turned as though she 
would leave the room. 


r BACCA QUEEN 171 

“ Naa, Nell, don’t ! ” came from the boy. “ Mother, behave ! 
What ! Nell did nowt ! Nobbut paid for ma ! It was me as 
hed t’ badliness inside ma. I don’t know wha put it theer, 
but Nell Carradus didn’t ! ” 

“ Come, come ! what’s all this chattering ? ” and they could 
hear Dr. Maddison stumbling up the narrow dark stairway. 
“ Too much talking is not good for small boys. I only said 
he might get up on certain conditions, you know. Well, Dicky, 
better ? That’s right ; quite yourself again ? ” 

“ He’s wearyin’ hissell to go to Ottarthwaite to-morra’, 
doctor,” began his mother inquiringly. 

“ Ottarthwaite ? Oh, of course, the great Scarth festival, 
when you all go off for the day, and tumble yourselves into the 
canal, and drink tea and eat unlimited buns until — My good- 
ness, Dicky, and are you dying for buns ? ” 

“ Naa, but I’d like to see Tom run ! Tom’s a real good ’un, 
sir ; he lent me twopence once — and besides, it’s t’ last 
time.” 

“ Last rubbish ! ” said the doctor firmly, looking round 
sternly and warningly at Mrs. Dixon and Nell, as much as to 
say, “ Who has been telling the boy that ? ” 

But his patient saw the look. 

“ It wasn’t them, doctor ; I kna mysell weel enough as 
it’s t’ last year as I shall iver see. I heard ’em say it in t’ 
horspital.” 

“ They don’t always talk perfect sense even in hospitals,” 
remarked the doctor, half to himself. 

“ Naa, but you know it your awn self, doctor. Oh let, ma 
go ! ” he pleaded ; “ and if it does mek ma badly, what’s the 
odds?” 

The doctor sat down and laid his hand on the thin wasted 
wrist. 

“Doesn’t Miss Mary usually drive down to the Park on 
these occasions, Nell?” he asked suddenly. 

Dr. Maddison had a tender heart, and the children had 
found the way there, and as he sat with his watch in his hand 
mechanically counting the beats, he was revolving in his mind 


172 


T BACCA OUEEN 


whether it was indeed possible to give a last pleasure to the 
dying boy — for dying he certainly was. 

He might live for weeks yet, might even run about again, 
but the end must come ; for the once chronic disease was 
becoming acuter each time. 

“ Generally,” said Nell. 

“ Well, why not ask her to drive Dicky down for an hour or 
so? That would not hurt him. It would do him good; and 
what would not be too much for Miss Glyn would just suit this 
young man.” 

Dicky’s face beamed with a sudden hope. 

“You might go along and ask, Nell, anyway; there would 
be no harm in that.” 

He looked up at the girl, genuinely pleased at his own 
brilliant idea, and was surprised to note that Nell’s brow had 
strangely darkened. 

“ Why, what’s wrong ? Surely you have no objection ? ” 

“ I niver was keen on beggin’ from t’ gentry ! ” said the girl 
stolidly ; “ and if all had their awn, I’d hev no call now ! ” 

“ Hullo ! lies the wind in that quarter,” thought the doctor 
to himself ; then aloud he said — 

“Oh come, Nell, it is not begging to ask for a seat in a 
carriage for an invalid. I would offer to drive the little chap 
down myself, but I know I can’t; and besides, he would be 
better in a carriage than in a dog-cart. I’d go and settle it 
with Miss Glyn myself, but I positively haven’t a moment.” 

Still the blackness did not lift. 

“ Oh, well, if you won’t, you won’t ; but somehow I never 
expected your pride to come in the way of your nursing 
instincts ! However, if it has, that’s all about it, and I must 
hurry off to do the best I can.” 

“Naa, I’se go, doctor, and welcome!” said Mrs. Dixon; 
“ I isn’t prood, and if I can do summut for t’ poor lile lad, the 
one as I’se aulus loved t’ best in t’ family God knas, I’se 
willin’. When his father comes in I’se go, though I’se nut say 
but what Nell wad ha’ bin t’ best, considerin’ as how she 
'ken’s Miss Mary sa weel ! ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 173 

Dr. Maddison looked up at Nell again, but still saw 
obstinacy seated securely on her brow. 

But Dicky, looking up a moment later, saw the first rift in 
the cloud, and clapping his hands together, cried joyously, 
“ She will ! she will ! Eh, I kent she wad ! ” 

“ What hes to be, hes to be ! ” she pronounced hardly, and 
then, breaking away from them all, she went downstairs and 
left the cottage. 

And Dicky, pulling the doctor nearer to him, whispered : 
“Eh, doctor, yon’s my sweetheart! Isn’t she bonny?” And 
as the doctor nodded, he continued, “ She kens as I wad 
have exed her to wed ma if there’d a’ bin time !” 

But the doctor, inwardly calling himself an old fool, which 
was really a habit he had got into, rose hastily, and giving 
his directions in his usual manner also left the cottage. 

Now Nell hardly realised herself why it was so bitter to her to 
go to The Abbey with such a simple request. She had often 
asked Miss Mary a favour without much consideration, for 
Mary never patronised, and she had the trick of deluding 
people into accepting kindnesses and escaping thanks, and 
making herself, despite her weakness, extremely accessible. 

It was, of course, really the fact that the other Eleanor 
Carradus was living there, and that she might actually come 
across her, which made Nell shrink as she was not in the habit 
of shrinking. 

But in some dim way Nell considered that this deep humili- 
ation was a punishment for her carelessness regarding Dicky, 
so as the deed had to be carried through, she set forth late in 
the afternoon determined that no effort on her part, and no 
objection on Miss Mary’s, should cause failure. 

Dr. Maddison had said that Dicky was to drive, and drive 
Dicky should. So she marched boldly up to The Abbey 
and knocked proudly at the back door, and asked to speak to 
Miss Glyn. 

Being a bank holiday Mary was not expecting callers, and 
was therefore enjoying the music which Eleanor was making 
for her at the piano. 


174 r BACCA QUEEN 

“ One of the girls, Miss, to see you ! ” said Jacobs, coming 
up to the couch. 

“ Who is it ? ” asked his mistress. 

“ They call her Nell Carradus ! ” said the man, speaking low, 
as the music sounded strongly through the room. 

“ Ah ! ” ejaculated Mary, looking towards the piano ; but 
Eleanor was far too intent on her business to notice this inter- 
ruption. Mary considered a moment. This girl must come 
in, but she must dismiss her companion. 

“ Ask her in, Jacobs, she is sure to want something special.” 

“ Eleanor ! ” — Mary had dropped the surname in response 
to her visitor’s earnest entreaty — “ Eleanor, a girl has called to 
see me, I wonder if you would mind leaving us for a little. 
She might feel diffident in telling me what she has to say before 
a third person. One never knows ! ” 

“ Oh, of course ! ” said Eleanor instantly ; “ I can finish this 
to you when she has gone ! ” 

Eleanor rose, and as she did so, the door opened and Nell 
entered. 

The slight, rosy, golden-haired Eleanor looked at the tall, 
robust, dark-haired, dark-complexioned Nell, and the look was 
returned with interest. And the dark eyes grew scornful, and 
the upper lip followed suit ; but the blue eyes smiled with a 
natural happy smile full of kindliness, for no scornful pout 
would ever spoil those rosy lips on account of Nell Carradus. 
It was not Nell Carradus who would ever touch Eleanor’s pride. 

So she left the room quite innocent of having caused any 
disturbance in the mind of the visitor, but she thought to her- 
self, “ How awfully good-looking some of these English girls 
are ! I’m nearly certain that it is the same girl I noticed so par- 
ticularly in the street the other day in that crowd. Just a 
factory girl, and yet so beautiful ! ” 

“ You little doll-faced Eleanor, you will have to take a back 
seat altogether,” laughed the girl to herself, as she ran upstairs 
to her own room. 

“ Come in, dear,” said Mary pleasantly, and Nell came for- 
ward. 


T BACCA QUEEN 175 

“ Why, Nell, I am delighted to see you ; we have not had a 
talk for a long time, have we ? ” 

“No,” replied Nell. 

“ Won’t you sit down ? ” 

Nell sat down on the edge of a chair in a distant part of the 
room. 

“Oh, but you must come nearer! Now do. You know I 
can’t come to you, so you must come to me ! ” and Mary 
laughed. She saw, however, that there was a cloud on her 
visitor’s brow, and she began to grow a little nervous, not 
knowing what might be the cause of the visit. 

“ Oh, I can’t bide ! ” broke in Nell, “ I’ve only come to ask 
whether ’’—and she stopped. 

“Yes?” 

" Oh, only whether you would be driving to Ottarthwaite 
to-morrow, and whether you would be so kind as to take Dicky 
Dixon with you ! ” 

“ Dicky Dixon ? ” 

“ Yes, you’ll know him — Jane Dixon’s lile lad, what’s dyin’. 
But happen you haven’t heard ? ” 

“ No, I am afraid not. Do tell me ! ” 

Mary was greatly relieved to hear the simple reason for the 
call ; she had been imagining all in a moment every sort of 
awkward possibility. 

So Nell told her all there was to tell in her quick, rugged, 
picturesque manner, and Mary, as she listened, understood. 

She knew Nell and her circumstances intimately, and she 
found herself wandering off from what the girl was saying, and 
wondering how such a rough jewel could be lost in such a set- 
ting. The pity of it, it seemed to her. 

And Nell, succumbing to the inevitable glamour of Mary’s 
presence, let out far more than she intended regarding her 
Saturday horror. 

“ Yes, it was me as vara near kilt him ! ” the old cry again, 
and she sat looking straight before her dismally. 

“But he is better now! I would not blame yourself too 
much,” was the kind reply. “ The great thing now is to con- 


176 


V BACCA QUEEN 


sider what is best to do. I shall be only too pleased to take 
him. There will be plenty of room, for I shall be by myself ; 
Miss — my friend is going down by boat. Yes, I am sure I 
could manage beautifully. I never start until two o’clock, and 
we should get down there easily by tea-time, and be home soon 
after five. This would not tire him at all. It would be the 
greatest pity for him to miss the pleasure,” and Mary spoke 
quite enthusiastically. She was so pleased to find something 
she could do for this girl. 

But Nell was hardly listening to the arrangement, or to 
Mary’s enthusiasms. That instant’s pause after “ Miss — ” had 
arrested her attention, and again the brow darkened ominously, 
and as Mary looked up at the completion of her sentence she 
was amazed to see the change in the girl’s face. 

“ You were going to say ‘ Miss Carradus,’ ” and she glowered. 

Mary was no coward, and, moreover, proudly objected to 
anything approaching impertinence, so she looked quietly into 
the girl’s face, and replied, “ I was.” 

“ And I am just Nell ! ” 

“ You are just Nell ! ” 

“And she has ^100,000 !” 

“Yes” 

“ And I have ten shillin’ a week ! ” 

“ If you tell me so ! ” 

“ And we both on us had the saam gran’father ! ” 

“ Yes ! ” 

Nell’s irritation grew apace. 

“ And you think as God hes done right by me ? ” 

Somehow Mary could not be angry even when the tone grew 
into fierce insolence. 

“ I do, but Man hasn’t, and that is the mystery of life.” 

Nell sat silent. She had not expected this reply, and it 
seemed as though even she hardly dare say all she felt might be 
said. 

But Mary, watching the full rich colour spreading all over the 
face, and noting the nervous movement of the ungloved hands } 
spoke again. 


i77 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Nell dear, if you and I understood everything that God 
has pleased to do with us, we should ourselves be as Gods ! 
He wants to make you and me great with His own greatness, 
and to this end He has taken from me youth and health, and 
all possibility of wedded love, and from you — you poor child, 
very, very much, which you know better than I do, but oh ! 
not everything — not everything ! ” 

Nell looked at this woman lying on the couch, who was so 
simply putting herself on her level. She instinctively noticed, 
though for the first time, the thin lines which crossed and 
re-crossed that broad brow, telling of years of patiently borne 
suffering. She saw, too, the thin white fingers, and the silver- 
mounted crutch leaning up against a chair close at hand. 

The tokens of wealth and refinement faded before that 
vision of ill-health and weakness, and as Nell would have 
clasped Dicky to her heart, or smoothed the pillow of the 
most faded old woman on The Scarth, or spent the night with 
any little baby that needed her, so she forgot herself entirely, 
and kneeling down, she took the outstretched hand and cried 
brokenly — 

“ Oh Miss Mary, what did God spoil two of us for ? ” 

And in the dull silence that followed, the question rang deep 
into Mary’s soul also. But breathlessly Nell continued — 

“ Why can’t I give you all the strength as I have ? I’d die 
and welcome ! O God, she’s good ! Let her be a strong 
young lass again instead o’ me ! I’s just nineteen, and I’s sick 
on it a’ ! ” 

Nineteen ! What a fatal age that seemed to be. The year 
when the one woman, with all life’s brightness behind and 
in front, was broken on the wheel of suffering, and the other 
had already grown aweary, waiting for the brightness that 
never came. 

But Mary was the stronger woman of the two, and having 
a heart at leisure, she hastily put up a prayer for guidance that 
she might say the thing that would help. 

“Thank you, thank you, Nell dear ! I am sure you would 
do anything you could, but you and I must not try and spoil 


i 7 8 


V BACCA QUEEN 

God’s work in us. He wants you, Nell. He needs your 
youth, your strength, and, Nell dear, your beauty ! You are 
His, and it remains for you not to disgrace Him. Oh, Nell, 
I have feared for you sometimes ! ” 

“ Eh, you may well fear ; I was born of the devil ! ” 

“ And by that you mean that you have no chance for a 
good life on earth ? ” asked Mary, probing the wound to the 
quick. 

• “I think as I’se a devil’s barn !” said Nell shortly, “and 
I’se reet ! ” 

“ All sin is of the devil,” said Mary thoughtfully ; “ but 
Christ came as the Lamb of God to bear away the sin of the 
world. Don’t, dear Nell, worry your mind about all sorts 
of odd thoughts. God loves you ! Christ died for you, to 
save you, and deliver you from sin. He only wants from you 

your life — your life as it is, in all its poverty and ” 

“ Disgrace ! ” put in Nell. 

“ Well, disgrace if you like. But you know you have never 
been disgraced by your mother, as He was disgraced when 
He took the sin of the world upon Him I ” and Mary’s face 
shone at the marvel of the thought. “No, no, dear, there is 
no excuse there! — Now, she added brightly, “can I help 
you — you yourself? ” 

“ Naa, there’s nothin’.” 

“ I wonder if you would like to go away. Go somewhere 
and learn a profession ? You are clever, Nell, and I am sure 
there would be no difficulty about the expense if you really 

thought you would like it. Let me speak to Mr. Glyn ” 

“ Do you mean as that other Eleanor Carradus would 
happen pay for ma ? ” 

This was the thought that was passing through Mary’s 
head. She imagined that Eleanor would probably be glad to 
do it. 

“ Because,” said the girl proudly, “ I think as there is some 
of John Carradus’ moneyas I have a right to — oh, not accord- 
ing to lawyers — but he had no right to do as he did ; but if I 
can’t have my gran’father’s brass from himsell, I’se tek it 


T BACCA QUEEN • 179 

from naabody ! My uncle hes offered, but I’se telt him t’ 
same.” 

Mary quickly dropped the subject. “Then about Dicky. 
I shall be delighted ; I am so very pleased that you came and 
asked me. I shall have room for you, too, if you like.” 

“ Naa ! ” said the girl quickly, “ I’se go with t’ others ! I’se 
getten my tickut ! ” Nell was dropping fast into the vernacular 
again. 

“ Very well, then, I will call for him at two o’clock, so tell 
him that he shall ride like a prince, and see all the fun ! 
Thank you for letting me have the chance of giving a cup 
of cold water ! ” 

Nell could not get any thanks out herself. She could give 
freely and happily, but thanking was not in her nature, and 
she found it hard work ; but, happily, Mary did not seem in the 
least to expect it. 

“ Look, Nell, lift the bunch of roses out ot that vase — I 
have so many — and take them to Dicky with my love ! ” 

“ They are beauties ! ” said Nell, more graciously, as she 
carefully lifted them out so as not to spill any water on the 
beautiful embroidered table-cover. 

“ Yes ; they are all grown at Fells. We are not very success- 
ful with our roses ; I must really have a good talk with young 
Fleming, who works there. He seems to have a perfect 
genius for rose-growing ! ” 

“ Has he ? ” said Nell dully ; then wishing good afternoon, 
she took her departure. 


CHAPTER XXI 

The Vicarage was in a state of wild unrest on Whit Tuesday 
morning. From an early hour the day’s peace had been 
disturbed for ever by the excited junior members of the 
household. For was not every one going to Ottarthwaite ! 
And of course every one had to get dressed in the right 


180 V BACCA QUEEN 

clothes, and the hampers had to be packed, and the Canal 
Head reached in time. 

“ We have to be there by 10.30,” said Maud, as she 
struggled with a half-tableful of sandwiches. These were 
such a worry, for the bread was too new, and they kept 
tumbling to pieces in spite of her best efforts. 

“No!” contradicted Polly; “the boat starts at 10.30, but 
Uncle Ryder said we were to be there considerably earlier or 
he would not let us in ! ” 

“ Oh yes, yes ! ” cried Sybil, all in a fume, “ and where are 
my hat? My new common one — not my Sunday one, of 
course. Nurse are so tiresome ; she will keep attending Kat, 
and she keeps saying ‘ In a minute, in a minute,’ and her 
minutes are hours ; and I are so worried, and I can’t get any- 
body to find my hat ! ” 

“ Polly, do go ! ” said Maud urgently ; but Polly was too 
busy tying up some rugs and cloaks. 

“You know, Maud, I can’t; mother told me to do these 
things up. It is, of course, perfectly ridiculous to take so 
many wraps. Just look what an exquisite day ! How could 
any one catch cold ! ” 

So Sybil was left mourning until her father appeared, and at 
his appearance her lamentations promptly took a lower tone. 

“ Sybil ! ” 

“ Well, father,” she cried, prancing round half-apologeti- 
cally, “ nobody will find my hat, and I can’t go without, and 
mother won’t let me wear my Sunday hat ; my old one are so 
horrid ! ” 

“ Well, dear, don’t squeak ! Polly, go and help her. I will 
finish those ! ” and Polly went without a word. 

“ I say ! ” cried Rob, bursting into the room, “ hurry up ! 
The boys have come to carry down the hampers ! You know 
we have to call for Miss Carradus, and it’s disgusting to be 
late ! ” 

“Oh, they’ll be sure to keep places for us!” said Maud 
serenely, as she finished tying up her last package. 

“ Yes, but we don’t wan’t to miss the parade ! ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 181 

And then Mrs. Glyn came in, very cheerful and rather happy- 
go-lucky, as if she had left everything to the last moment and 
was busy hoping for the best. 

“That's right, Maud; you are a good child. Now I 
think we are ready. Cook and I have finished packing the 
utensils, &c.” 

“ Knives, mother? ” asked Maud. 

“ Oh no ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Glyn. “ How stupid ; run into 
the kitchen and tell cook; they are just tying down the 
hamper. Oh and I meant to have brought some oranges for 
the children. Oh, well, it can’t be helped now ! ” 

“ Have we all to go to The Abbey, mother ? ” asked Rob. 

“ Oh no ! One or two will be quite plenty.” 

“ May I ? ” cried Rob. 

“And me?” said Sybil, who appeared at the moment 
radiant in a large flappy chip hat — contented at last. 

“ We can’t all go ! ” said Polly ; “that would be absurd ! ” 

“ Suppose Rob and Polly go, then ! ” said Mrs. Glyn. 

“Yes, dear !” broke in the Vicar. “I think, mother, that 
we and the rest had better go directly to the Canal Head. I 
promised father to be there early to help him to keep order.” 

Although the Vicar was not officially connected with the 
Scarth Sunday school, it was always recognised that on festive 
occasions he should give his father support, and on this day of 
all others in the year he felt called upon to sacrifice himself, 
for a man of his temperament such a day as the annual outing 
to Ottarthwaite Park was one long sacrifice. 

For the Ottarthwaite treat was truly a serious undertaking 
for those who had the responsibility. Some thousand men, 
women, children, and babies made their annual outing in a 
manner peculiar to The Scarth. But The Scarth was nothing 
if not adventurous, and whilst other schools resorted to trains, 
carriages, and coaches, Scarthsiders chose a far more delightful 
mode of transit. 

For at Whitsuntide the canal barges congregated at Far- 
biggin and underwent some amount of cleaning. Their dark 
depths were relieved from their loads of black coal, and were 


182 T BACCA QUEEN 

then covered over with clean boarded decking, and their 
dusty sides were enfolded in new wrappings. 

Then cartloads of school forms were brought down and 
arranged on the improvised deck, thus securing sitting accom- 
modation for the oldest and the youngest ; but the great 
ambition of the older boys and girls was to find a place on the 
side of the barge from whence they could surreptitiously stoop 
down, and let a stick or an umbrella rush through the cool 
water, or grasp a bunch of tender spring leaves from an over- 
hanging bough. 

The natural object of the teachers, who were decorated 
with white rosettes provided for the occasion by Mary Glyn, 
was to intercept these efforts, and to control the spirit of 
adventure which was abundantly evident; and such was their 
influence that even amongst the wild-spirited Scarthsiders it 
was the rarest occurrence for any serious accident to happen. 

Certainly hats, hymn-books, umbrellas dropped overboard 
from time to time, causing momentary excitement, and at the 
bridges, when the boat came in contact with the bank for a few 
moments, there were attempts by those inside the boat to drag 
in a ticketless friend for a free ride. But Mr. Glyn and his 
teachers were disciplinarians and sternly interfered with such 
irregularities. 

This canal passed through some of the most charming 
country in Moorshire, and the boats, drawn by their gaily 
decorated horses and carrying their bright burdens of enthu- 
siastic happiness, passed like a dream through the sweet 
country side which seemed to have dressed up in all its early 
summer daintiness for the occasion. 

The bluebells, and the cowslips, and the primroses looked 
up and smiled as the sound of the children’s laughter reached 
them in their woodland solitude. 

The cows came hurrying down in their lumbering fashion 
to the water’s edge, allured by the sweet singing, and the 
horses, enjoying their holidays in the fragrant meadows, 
galloped merrily as the children cheered them lustily; and 
in the evening, when the sun was glowing all the sky, the gay 


T BACCA QUEEN 183 

little rabbits, advancing their long ears warily, gave impertinent 
glances at the festive intruders, and then darted away with 
their white tails cocked up behind them, and the boys and 
girls screamed with pure ecstasy. 

So the boats glided on tranquilly for several miles; and 
year after year, the hawthorns and the young oaks, and the 
hazels, and all the rest of the woodland aristocracy, stretched 
themselves upwards to the bright blue sky to deck the occa- 
sion, and the roses laughed to the spring flowers nestling at 
their feet and whispered, “ Summer has come, the children are 
here ! ” and down the little lane which led from the canal to 
the Park, many a tender blossom, smiling a last pathetic smile, 
yielded itself willingly unto death, in the hot eager hands of a 
little child. 

So the old people from The Scarth, and the middle-aged 
ones grown hard and old before their time, grew young again 
as they smelled the woodland scents, and their eyes grew glad 
and beautiful as the wonderful world poured itself into their 
faces, and their toiling bodies were rested by the gliding of 
the boat through the still water and their hearts were rested 
by the loving intercourse with those around them. 

Here was no dusty roadway, no rattling train, no public- 
house. Just pure, restful enjoyment. 

So no wonder that Ottarthwaite was to the young ones an 
adventure, and to the older ones a familiar dream. 

Eleanor was quite ready for the day’s expedition when the 
girls appeared. The Abbey was Liberty Hall to the Vicarage 
children, so on arrival Polly and Rob wandered about until 
they discovered Eleanor descending the stairs, drawing on her 
gloves as she came. 

“Oh ! ” cried Rob, with something of a sigh of relief, “ you 
are ready, Miss Carradus ; that is a comfort ! We thought 
perhaps ” 

“How do you do?” said Polly, holding out her hand 
politely— for Polly was nothing if not proper. 

“ Quite well, thank you ! ” said Eleanor cheerfully. She 
had already made the acquaintance of the Vicarage family, 


1 84 T BACCA QUEEN 

and was rather entertained at the calm way in which they 
had all accepted her as belonging to them. 

“ How is Aunty Mary ? ” asked Polly again. 

“ Miss Glyn is very well, only rather tired, so she is saving 
herself for this afternoon ! ” 

“Well, do let us go !” said Rob, who was all on the fidget. 
“ Never mind your gloves — you can’t wear gloves when you 
get there. I have mine, but I shall stuff them into my pocket 
the very minute I get on to the boat ! ” 

“ I am quite ready ! ” returned Eleanor eagerly. She was 
very pleased to get off with these two children, and she was 
under the impression that she might be able to let out some 
of the babyhood that was still crying out for expanding room. 
“ What a lovely day it is ! ” 

“Yes, of course !” returned Rob. “You know grandpapa 
always prays for a fine day. That’s why ! ” 

“ Oh ! ” was all Eleanor could think of saying. 

“You see grandpapa’s so awfully good, don’t you know, 
that he gets lots of things he asks for, that we couldn’t,” con- 
tinued Rob, as they went down the garden to the river walk. 
“ It’s jolly for us that we have him, because we arn’t good at 
all, so of course we couldn’t expect much, could we ? ” 

“ We have father ! ” put in Polly rather reprovingly. 

“ Oh well, father ! I know he’s as good as good, but he 
can’t be quite as good as grandpapa — he is not so old, it can’t 
be expected ! ” 

Eleanor found herself quite at a loss as to what she was 
supposed to say, but there was no need to trouble herself, for 
Rob was equal to any amount of chattering. 

“ And you are going to enjoy yourself frightfully ! We 
always do. Now do you like singing ? ” 

“ Very much ! but I can’t sing much myself.” 

“Then you can listen to us. We sing on and on, hymns 
you know. We never stop the whole time. We have lovely 
hymns. ‘ We are out on the ocean sailing!’ is the very nicest. 
It makes you really feel as if you were going to America 
or Heaven or somewhere jolly, though it is only a canal ! ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 185 

“ And c Star of Faith ’ ! ” said Polly. 

“ 0 ^ yes, ‘ Star of Faith,’ that says, * Bless the sailor’s lonely 
pillow, far, far at sea ! ’ We love that ! Polly and I sing it 
at night in bed, and it makes you feel lovely and comfortable.” 

“ We are going straight to the boats,” explained Polly. 
“The school starts at The Scarth, and they make a procession 
through the streets with flags ; but we won’t worry about seeing 
that — it isn’t much ! ” 

As they neared the Canal Head they noticed group after 
group of people making their way in the same direction. 
Some were carrying the day’s provisions for themselves and 
their families ; but others were merely assembling to see the 
happy start. Cloudless sky and a light sunshiny breeze — quite 
perfect — and Rob and even the proper Polly pranced along 
one on each side of Eleanor, in huge spirits. 

Ryder and his father, with many stalwart teachers or 
helpers from the adult men’s classes, were already on the scene 
of action arranging the boats, placing new comers and selling 
tickets to late comers at an increased charge. 

For there were always a number of unbelievers who 
cautiously waited to make sure of the weather before parting 
with their money, and for this failure in the spirit of specula- 
tion or mysticism they had to pay extra. 

Ryder was immediately aware of the arrival of Eleanor and 
her companions, for in the midst of all his labours he had 
been looking out for the sunshiny head anxiously. 

He was cleared for action in a light Norfolk suit, with a 
white straw hat, with ribbon and tie of his college colours. 
He looked the picture of wholesome energetic English 
young manhood, as he turned rapidly from one to another, 
arranging, directing, gesticulating, and answering incessantly 
to the cries for “ Mr. Ryder ” which came alike from perplexed 
helper and overbearing, expostulating scholars. 

“Ah, here you are ! ” he cried, as he made his way as fast 
as he could over the forms in one of the boats. “We are in 
the last boat — the fourth. Polly, I want you to settle yourself 
towards the back — I mean the stern ! ” and he laughed. “ My 
13 


1 86 T BACCA QUEEN 

sister-in-law will be here directly,” he said to Eleanor. “ Will 
you excuse my rushing away ? ” 

“ Oh, do not mind us at all ! ” said Eleanor. “ We shall be 
all right ! ” And in another moment he had dashed off. 

“ Hullo, Tom ! ” to Dicky’s small friend. “ Ah ! all you 
lads want to be in the first boat, I suppose ! Well, there are 
plenty to keep order, so mind you behave yourself, or there 
will be no ride home, remember that ! ” 

The boys laughed ; the fun was beginning and they were 
trooping away, when Ryder called, “ Change your minds and 
come into my boat ! ” He was anxious to entice a few of the 
more lively members into his boat with a view to discipline. 

“Naa!” mocked Tom. “Your’se is t’ lasses’ boat, Mr. 
Ryder ! ” and away they sped towards the front. 

There certainly did seem to be a quieter spirit amongst 
those who chose the last boat, and Rob was rather afraid that 
they might be too flat there, for she dearly loved anything in 
the shape of a bustle. 

But in a few moments the band was heard in the distance, 
and the great procession arrived. 

Then indeed there was a scramble. Tickets were examined, 
children were lost and found again. Old people were helped 
across the narrow planks amidst the gay laughter of their com- 
peers, and the boys and girls struggled for the best seats. Chil- 
dren having been well fortified before leaving home with 
oranges, nuts, and “toffies,” promptly sat down in the busiest 
gangways to enjoy the same, and every one stood up eagerly 
looking for every one else. 

But it was all merry and amusing, and gradually a general 
settlement took place. 

Each boat held about two hundred and fifty persons, and 
was commanded by some leading teacher, assisted by some 
capable men and women lieutenants ; so by the laws of prefer- 
ence it came to pass that the people sorted themselves pretty 
much as they desired, and each boat was comfortably filled. 

Nell had meant to go in the first boat with some paiticular 
friends whom she had arranged to meet, but having been 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


187 

hindered, through seeing her little brothers and sisters off in 
decent style, and then running in to have a last word with 
Dicky, she turned up very late. 

John Fleming was too busy in an official capacity under 
Ryder to notice her, but she determined to avoid the boat that 
held the rival Eleanor, yet as she came hurrying up at the 
last moment she had to get in where she could. 

“ There’s that girl again ! ” remarked Eleanor to Catherine, 
who looked up in the direction Eleanor’s eyes had taken. 

“ Why, where have you seen her before ?” 

“ She came in yesterday afternoon to see Miss Glyn ! ” 

“ She is in my class ! ” said Catherine vaguely. “ Now, 
Sybil, don’t worry ! Sit where mother tells you ! ” 

“ But, mother,” whined Sybil uneasily, “ I want to be at 
the side — I want to look at the lovely water ! ” 

“ No, dear !” said her mother decidedly, and Sybil pouted 
and submitted. 

“ Oh, the horses ! ” cried Rob ; and round the towing-path 
the be-ribboned, be-braided, be-plaited animals were led, with 
their brass-plated harness shining like gold. 

Cheer upon cheer rang out from the children, for now they 
felt that they were really going. 

“ Oh ! ” cried Rob disappointedly. “ There, that is always 
the way, they never do fairly by the last boat. Look at our 
horses ! They are not half as grand as the others, and one 
is a donkey ! I call that a shame ! ” 

“ Why, niver heed, lass ! ” said a woman sitting next her. 
“What we’se git theer safe enough.” 

At last all were on board, and the voyagers started. The 
crowd on the banks cheered lustily, and those on board began 
waving handkerchiefs, and singing their favourite hymns quite 
regardless of any special leadership. 

“ Now let us all settle down comfortably ! ” said Catherine, 
as she made the most of the room there was. 

Mr. Glyn was busy arranging for methodical hymn-singing, 
and his son Henry was energetically supplementing him, whilst 
Ryder, from far away at the extreme bow of the “ vessel,” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


1 88 

surrounded by a large following of young men, watched for 
the word of command, and could be seen leading his end of 
the boat lustily. 

“ Isn’t it lovely ! ” said Rob, sitting very close up against 
Eleanor. “ And doesn’t Uncle Ryder look jolly?” 

“ Very ! ” acquiesced Eleanor. 

“You know Uncle Ryder has not exactly a beautiful voice ! 
It is what they call stentorian, but it is splendid for an occa- 
sion of this description,” put in Polly. 

“Yes,” acquiesced Rob. “You can’t tire Uncle Ryder! 
You watch him ! He’ll sing all the way there and back, 
and set off balloons and turn skipping ropes, and pour out 
sugary tea, and play ‘Grandy Needles,’ and everything, you 
know ! ” 

“ And talk ! ” added Polly. “ Oh, you should hear Uncle 
Ryder talk to the old women. They dote on him ! ” 

To Eleanor all the excitement around her was most strange 
and interesting. It seemed so curious to her to take part in 
such a mix up of society, and the general happiness was very 
infectious. 

If she were interested in those around her, there were 
very many who were as eagerly interested in watching her 
from far and near. 

“ Yon’s her ! ” said Bella Lancaster, who was seated a short 
distance away. 

“Whar?” asked Jane Ann Martin, who had settled herself 
so that she could keep an eye on Ben, who was being a little 
too decided in his attentions to Nell to please her. 

“Her as is sitting next Mrs. Glyn. She’s bonny, any 
road ! ” 

“ Aye ! any lass can be bonny as hes rooked all her friends 
and relations out o’ 00,000 ! ” said Bella severely. 

She was extremely sore that at John Carradus’s death she 
had received nothing more than a liberal remuneration for 
work done on his behalf. 

And on the other side of the boat, William Carradus 
and Janet were seated, with little Jacky standing between them. 


189 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Yon’s Richard’ lass ! ” whispered Janet. 

“ Well, don’t thee go talkin’ tull her ! ” 

“ And for why ? Surely she can say a civil word to her own 
aunt ? ” 

But William whispered to his wife, “ Thoo kens as our 
Dick wedt a lady, and Mr. Glyn telt us, as t’ auld father, he 
didn’t want her to be a Scarthsider ! He wanted her to bide 
a lady ! ” 

“ Well, would speaking to thee and me hurt her ? ” 

“ Naa, but think on as there’s Maria ! She’d best keep off 
t’ Scarth ! ” 

“ Aye, happen she hed, Uncle William ! ” said Nell suddenly 
at his side. 

William started. “ Why, Nell ! I didn’t see tha ! ” 

“ I’se big enough, Uncle William!” laughed the girl. 
“ I’se coom to sit by thee and Aunt Janet. I’se sick o’ yon 
company t’other side of t’ boat,” and she glanced scornfully at 
Ben and several other lads of like calibre. 

She was in good spirits this morning, and intent on getting 
plenty of fun out of the day. Dicky was much better, and 
she had left him eagerly anticipating his afternoon’s pleasure. 
She had already had the joy of snubbing Ben for his attentions, 
and, being peculiarly sensitive to her surroundings, the general 
gaiety was infecting her, and even the fact that “yon other 
Eleanor ” was seated in the same boat seemed incapable of 
depressing her. 

“Well, lass, thoo’s lookin’ weel ! ” said Janet admiringly. 
“ That white frock suits tha ! What med ta think o’ yaller 
ribbins ! ” 

“ Happen t’ primroses ! ” said Nell lightly. 

Nell’s attire was inexpensive, but well thought out. It was 
nothing more than a washing white cotton, with a yellow 
waistband, and a primrose-coloured scarf swathed round her 
shapely neck, forming a bow at her throat, whilst a white 
straw hat with a simple yellow band completed the outfit. 

Yet, after all, it was Nell herself with her shining eyes, her 
handsome features, her burnished brown hair, her supple, 


190 T BACCA QUEEN 

well-proportioned figure, which turned such an outfit into one 
fit for a queen. 

More than one Scarthsider looked with approving satisfac- 
tion on their ’Bacca Queen, as she sat making nonsense with 
those around her. 

Fleming, who was at the extreme front of the boat helping 
Ryder, looked down on the merry throng, and had eyes only 
for the nodding head and the laughing mouth, and he 
wondered eagerly what Nell was talking about. He had 
noted with satisfaction the little episode, when Nell deserted 
Ben, and he was planning a pleasant hour with her during 
some part of that bright summer day. 


CHAPTER XXII 

The shady Park was thronged with the joyous crowd. Foot- 
ball, cricket, rounders and other games were progressing 
actively. Family parties were seated under the wide-spreading 
trees ; boys and girls were swinging, skipping, racing and 
romping in the first energy of the day. 

The Abbey party had possessed themselves of a large tree 
a little apart from the merrymakers, and Maud and Polly 
and Rob had waxed busy and important over arranging the 
wraps on the ground and unpacking the provisions. 

And this done, they had rushed off to help with the games 
in response to the eager demands of the school children ; and 
Eleanor rushed off with them and turned the skipping-rope 
until her arms ached again, and swung the children and 
danced round in the ring games, and finally escaped, ex- 
hausted, back to the tree, that she might rest and yet watch 
from her vantage point all that Went on around her; and 
Polly soon arrived to bear her company, and began promptly 
to entertain her in her usual discursive fashion. 

“You see the carriage will be coming with Aunt Mary 
directly, then it will be tea-time, so I want to make everything 


T BACCA QUEEN ' 191 

quite ready, and then, when we have given the children their 
tea, we can have our own.” 

Polly spoke of the scholars as if they were all years younger 
than herself. 

“ I see,” returned Eleanor smiling ; “ well, I can’t think how 
you all run about so mnch. Look at those teachers over 
there ! ” 

“ Oh, well, the teachers have to do it ! ” said Polly ! “ it is 
their business, and the children would not think it any fun if 
they wore not playing with them ! ” 

From their position they could see a good part of the park, 
and Eleanor, who had thrown herself down on a rug under 
the tree and was fanning her face with a bunch of fern fronds, 
was busily taking in the scene. 

She noted, a short distance off, Sybil and Rob swinging 
under Maud’s kindly superintendence. 

Children were stooping to drink, and wash their hot little 
hands in the astonished streamlet that had for long generations 
rippled along merrily to itself in the peace and solitude of the 
grand old park. 

Big boys and girls were roughly romping together. Ryder, 
with his coat off, was bending all his energies in a game of 
cricket. Mr. Glyn was talking deferentially with group after 
group of parents or grown-up scholars. 

The Vicar and his wife might be seen strolling away in the 
far distance, enjoying themselves in their own way ; and by a 
group of farm cottages, a circle of energetic teachers and adult 
scholars were preparing for tea, and over the summit of some 
rising ground, Eleanor could descry the heads of some deer 
which had fled before the children’s noise. 

It was all very charming and new to Eleanor, and she was 
quite happy storing up her impressions to send to Katchen. 
And as she looked up again she noticed, walking along the 
grassy path under the avenue of beech-trees that stretched 
from one end of the park to the other, a young man of the 
country gentleman stamp, whom she could hardly imagine as 
belonging to the school staff. He was tall and very fair, 


192 ' T BACCA QUEEN 

and carried with him a certain air of distinction ; he held 
himself well and walked along with a step of easy assurance, 
but slowly, as though he were looking for some person or 
persons. 

Eleanor’s quick eyes noticed him instantly, and she followed 
his movements with interest. And as she watched, she saw 
him raise his hat and shake hands with Mr. Glyn, with whom 
he stood talking for a moment or two. 

Then he passed on and stood looking at the cricket match, 
that was in full swing between the junior scholars and their 
teachers, and Ryder’s class of young men. 

As he stood there watching the play, with one hand in his 
pocket and the other holding a cigarette, there was a loud 
shout of dismay from a group of men and boys who were 
lying, in every form of dishabille, on the grass. The ball was 
tossed exultantly from one player to another and Ryder turned 
from the wicket — caught out. 

A little smile crept over the watcher’s countenance as he 
turned away and strolled forward. 

‘ Who is that coming along ? ” asked Eleanor. 

Polly looked up. “ Oh, that is Mr. Arthur Calthwaite. He 
lives at Calthwaite, between here and Farbiggin. He’s rather 
a swell, you know, or thinks himself one, which comes to the 
same thing ! ” 

Polly’s pronouncements amused Eleanor extremely, and she 
laughed. 

“ Dear me, and do you know him intimately ? ” 

“ Oh no ! But we see him at church when he has nothing 
else to do, and he doesn’t like sitting amongst the * working 
classes ’ — he likes his own pew that the family has had for 
generations; he says he dislikes peppermint!” 

“ Peppermint ? ” 

“ Yes, I heard him tell father once, that the working classes 
were addicted to peppermint, and that the smell of it disturbed 
his worship ! ” 

“ What nonsense ! ” laughed Eleanor, then she continued her 
examination of the figure that was coming nearer. 


193 


V BACCA QUEEN 

Large blue eyes, light wavy hair, and an open countenance. 

“ Arthur ! ” thought she, and her mind slipped back to 
the Idylls. “ Arthur the spotless Prince,” and then suddenly 
she thought of Katchen and her nonsense. Perhaps this 
was the Prince ! That would be a delightful adventure ! 

At the idea, she drew herself together instinctively, and her 
hand wandered up to her hat to feel if it were on straight, and 
she remembered that her cheeks were flaming with sun and 
exercise. 

Arthur Calthwaite was certainly hunting for something or 
someone. He had had a great downfall the week before in 
connection with Lady Margaret Temple, who had departed 
to town giving him to understand that his suit was quite 
hopeless. 

But Calthwaite was not a man to despair. If he could not 
get one he must set to work to get another, and, as the news of 
the arrival of the wonderful heiress had reached him oppor- 
tunely, he thought he might as well come down and have a 
look at her. 

So here he was, all ready to be favourably impressed, and as 
he came forward he saw Eleanor and recognised Polly. 

And his eyes were delighted with the vision of the flushed, 
golden-haired girl, in the snowy muslin frock, with the chip hat 
adorned with white ribbons and violets. She made a pretty 
picture with the great green moss-covered trunk of the old 
beech-tree for a background, and the bunch of fading fern 
fronds in her lap, whilst the leafy shadows and early afternoon 
sunlight played around her. 

Whoever this girl was, she was certainly not one of the 
Farbiggin tribe. Calthwaite was intimately conversant with 
the points of all the girls in his neighbourhood. Hoping for 
the best he threw away his cigarette, and strolling forward, 
greeted Polly with a charming smile. 

“ Well, Miss Polly, you are busy ! What a jolly day it is for 
you all.” 

He was close up to the tree now, and Polly was down on 
her knees spreading potted -meat on to bread and butter. 


194 


T BACCA QUEEN 


She got up slowly and held out her hand, after carefully 
wiping it first in a towel. 

“Good afternoon, Mr. Calthwaite — yes, it is a lovely day. 
Have you come for duty, or pleasure ? ” 

“ Really, Miss Polly, I don’t know ! ” he laughed happily. 

“ Suppose I try to help you ! ” 

“ I am afraid that you would not be the slightest use, thank 
you ! ” said Polly, in her very politest tone. 

Again he laughed. “ Nothing like honesty in this world, 
apparently ! ” 

Eleanor prepared to rise, but seeing her movement he said 
gently — 

“ Oh, please do not let me disturb you on any account, 
Miss ” 

He stopped and looked down full in her face. 

“Miss Carradus ! ” said Polly; “she is a friend of ouis. 
Mr. .Arthur Calthwaite, Miss Eleanor Carradus ! ” and she 
introduced them in style. 

Neither could help laughing at the quaintness of the child’s 
manner. 

“ No, really you would be no earthly use ! ” said Polly again, 
as he made an effort to assist her. “You had far better sit down 
and make yourself comfortable, and be an ornament like Miss 
Carradus.” 

“ That of course is an impossibility, Miss Polly, but perhaps 
Miss Carradus will allow me to play the Beast to her Beauty ! ” 
he returned, feeling that the fates were indeed propitious, as he 
settled himself comfortably by Eleanor’s side. 

He talked to her deferentially, yet with well-bred ease, and 
Eleanor could not help contrasting his conversation with poor 
Ryder’s efforts in that direction. 

“ This is quite a summer Idyll ! ” he said, at last, enthusi- 
astically. “Are you fond of poetry, Miss Carradus, may I 
ask?” 

“ Very. Are you ? ” 

“Oh, extremely.” He might have added that his poetical 
education was limited to the knowledge of a few popular songs 


T BACCA QUEEN 195 

and some stock poems he had been made to learn when a 
child. 

“ But I like practical poetry the best of all ! ” he added, 
bowing slightly to his companion. 

Eleanor laughed. It was amusing to have compliments 
again. She had not had a real one since she left Germany, 
unless she might count all little Miss Williams’s prattlings. 

“You see,” she remarked, “I have just come from the land 
of poetry, and England seems cold and strange at first ! ” 

“ I expect it does ! ” Calthwaite returned, delighted to find a 
common ground so soon. “ There is nothing to be compared 
with dem alten Vaterland, and with a boyish blush he began 
to talk in German. 

“ Ach ! ” cried Eleanor, surprised, in her turn, into her pet 
language, “ do you speak German also ? ” 

“ A very little!” he returned modestly, “but if it is a pleasure 
to hear it, I do not mind blundering to you ! ” 

This was truly delightful, but Polly very shortly remarked, 
with severe gravity, “ Well, if you will talk in that hateful 
language it is no fun at all. I don’t call it fair?” 

The culprits laughed, but Polly departed in great displeasure. 
So again the fates seemed working for the express purpose 
of pleasing Arthur Calthwaite. 

As to Eleanor she was prepared to look upon everything on 
this wonderful day in the full spirit of adventure, and it seemed 
quite impossible to keep up any kind of conventionality with 
a young man who would insist on talking German with his 
cases and genders all in confusion, and yet who somehow 
managed to convey the most suggestive insinuations regarding 
the blissful circumstances in which he now found himself. 

“You see, I was at Heidelberg when a boy, Miss Carradus, 
and I got as much fun, and as little German, out of the language 
as possible. No wonder you laugh ! ” 

“ But you don’t mind really?” asked Eleanor; “I can’t help 
laughing when I am amused. I have no self-control — at least 
so they used to tell me in Germany. But here in England I 
consider myself a model. I really do ! ” 


196 


V BACCA QUEEN 


‘‘Does not this all seem very odd to you? ” he asked, making 
a motion towards the Park. 

“ Oh, very ! I have never seen anything quite like it. But 
of course there is a great deal of al fresco enjoyment in Ger- 
many, more than in England, I understand. But this Park is 
lovely. It reminds me very much of Weimar I feel ; <juite 
homesick. I am such a stranger, you know ! ” 

“ You are like a bright visitant from another sphere, come 
to lighten our darkness ! ” 

“ I am afraid there is not much light about me ! ” and she 
laughed. “ I am the black sheep here, I think. Every one 
seems so very good in Farbiggin. So religious, I mean ! ” 

“ Oh,” he responded, feeling his way carefully. “ Exceeding 
piety is perhaps a trifle heavy, nicht? Your guardian seems 
to take life very seriously ! As for his son,” and he glanced in 
the direction of Ryder, who could be seen chatting to his 
young men, “ he seems almost as serious as his father ; but 
to-day he will have to let go some of his starch.” 

He looked at the girl admiringly. It struck him that if he 
really meant to go in for her, he would have to make the most 
of his opportunities, as the lawyer’s son, living under the same 
roof with her, might become a serious rival. 

“I don’t understand that game at all! ” said Eleanor, looking 
in Ryder’s direction, and ignoring her companion’s suggestion. 

“ Doubling ! ” thought her companion. “ Never mind, the 
harder the chase, the more exciting the sport.” So he tried again. 

“Oh, I agree with you that Farbiggin people are rather 
slow. Your guardian, I expect, lays a stern hand on the 
pleasures of life. Now, you can’t deny that ! ” and he laughed 
brightly and ingenuously. 

“ Well, I can’t say as to that just yet ! ” she returned 
cautiously. “You want me to commit myself to an opinion. 
How do you know that I do not hold a stern unworldly creed 
myself ! ” 

“ I have eyes! ” he returned calmly, and Eleanor’s blue eyes, 
lifted to his face shining with merriment, suddenly took to 
examining the grasses at her feet. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


197 


And now there was a little commotion, for a carriage 
appeared coming through the gate at the Farbiggin end 
of the Park. 

“ Miss Glyn ! ” exclaimed Eleanor, with great pleasure in 
her voice. Calthwaite leaped to his feet and assisted her 
to rise. 

“Thanks ! ” she said, shaking the tumbles out of her frock. 
“ I must go and meet that carriage ; Miss Glyn is quite the 
most charming woman in Moorshire ! ” and she rushed off, 
leaving her companion to follow if he cared to do so. 

The carriage stopped within a few yards of the encampment, 
and Mary’s happy face was only eclipsed by the beaming 
countenance of Dicky, who was seated in state beside her. 

“ Isn’t it lovely, Miss Glyn ? ” cried Eleanor ; “ and doesn’t 
everybody look jolly ? ” 

“Delightful. I hope you are getting on nicely, dear? 
Well, Dicky, here we are ! Why, there is the bell. We are 
just in time for tea. How clever we are — you and I, Dicky ! ” 

“ It’s them horses what did it! ” said Dicky, giving the credit 
where he thought it was due. He was glancing round from 
side to side in search of companions, and his real object was 
to find Nell. 

But Mary was watching Calthwaite coming up behind 
Eleanor, and her manner lost its perfect freedom, but she 
nevertheless held out her hand, as he raised his hat. 

“Mr. Calthwaite! How do you do? Beautiful weather, 
is it not ? ” 

“Most delightful!” he responded, and added boldly, “Being 
in a holiday mood, I came along to see the merry-making ! ” 

“ I am sure that we need all the help we can get in order to 
give the people a good time ! ” said Mary suggestively. 

A swift glance of amusement passed over Eleanor’s counte- 
nance, causing the young man to remark, with engaging 
candour — 

“ I am afraid, Miss Glyn, that I cannot claim to any kind 
of unselfishness in the matter of assisting the public. I am 
awfully sorry, but I have done nothing more than try to enter- 


198 


T BACCA QUEEN 


tain Miss Carradus, to whom one of your nieces introduced 
me, and for such a pleasure ” 

But his speech was interrupted by Dicky, who called out to 
a small boy who came sidling up to the carriage — 

“Tom, Tom, is t’ raaces ower, and hes ta sin Nell? ” 

Tom, delighted at being the mate of such an important 
personage as Dicky, came still closer, and explained that the 
races were coming on directly after tea, and that he would go 
and find Nell. 

Nell was not far to seek, for she had seen the carriage 
the moment it entered the Park, and was already walking 
towards it rather slowly with her companion Sarah, a little 
uncertain as to whether she would go on or not. 

But Tom was not bashful. “ Dicky wants tha, Nell. Coom 
on ! ” 

And Mary, seeing Nell in the distance, waved her hand 
enticingly, and Dicky waved his cap and shouted as best he 
could in his weak little voice — 

“ Nell, Pse here ! ” 

But the girl, seeing Eleanor standing by the carriage, and 
knowing that Mary must know what she was thinking, still 
hesitated, until Sarah remarked, “ Why, Nell, what’s wrang wi’ 
tha ? Gaa on ! Besides, I want to see what yon lass looks 
like ! ” 

And Nell, shamed that even Sarah should imagine that she 
was afraid, advanced. 

And as she did so, there were many Scarthsiders looking on 
who watched the girl as she strode forward, and they watched 
as she stood close up against the heiress, and the remark that 
Bella Lancaster made to Janet was probably the opinion of 
many, “ For a’ yon t’other lass hes t’ brass, oor ’Bacca Queen 
is t’ Queen still.” 

But Eleanor, who had no thought of competition in her 
mind in connection with the handsome girl, looked with 
admiring eyes on her as she came forward. 

“You see, Nell, it is all right; I have brought him safely 
and not too tired, I trust. Don’t let him run about ! ” 


V BACCA QUEEN 199 

“ Naa, I’se mind him, Miss Mary ! Would ta like to hev 
thy tea wi’ me or wi’ t’ gentry, Dicky ? ” 

Nell spoke brightly, as if she had never hoarded up any 
grievance against that particular class. 

“ Dicky will stick to his best friends, I should think ! ” said 
Mary. 

“ Of course I mun gaa wi’ Nell ! ” he responded. 

So the door was opened, and Nell herself helped him from 
the carriage and led him away. 

“Good gracious !” thought Calthwaite, “where on earth 
have I seen that face before ? Talk about statuesqueness ! 
The pose is magnificent ! I am a lucky dog to-day ! I will 
enjoy the blue eyes as long as I can, but if I don’t get a look 
in at the dark ones before I depart, I was not worth raising. 
1 suppose she’s a Farbiggin lass, but, by all the gods, a princess 
in disguise. 1 wonder if I’m game to act King what’s-his-name 
and the beggar-maid. Probably not — but a man has a right 
to his sport ! ” 


CHAPTER XXIII 

But a cloud of annoyance had gathered over Mary’s face 
when Catherine came up and seated herself in the carriage for 
a few minutes’ chat. 

“ We all seem getting on very nicely,” Catherine remarked. 
“ It is a blessing they are nearly ready for tea. Why, Mary, 
what is the matter? Worried about something? ” 

“ Oh, perhaps it’s nothing ! ” said Mary. “ Only Arthur 
Calthwaite has turned up. He and Eleanor seem to have 
been having a happy time ! Did you notice them ? ” 

Mary spoke a shade reproachfully, as if she thought that her 
sister-in-law might have bestowed a little more attention on the 
young visitor. 

Now Catherine might have said that she had never given 
another thought to Eleanor from the moment she entered the 
Park, but she felt Mary’s tone, and replied quickly, as if 
suffering under an accusation. 


200 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Well, Mary, I never noticed anything particular. In fact 
Harry and I have been out of sight most of the afternoon 
down by the river. I never imagined that any particular 
chaperonage was required to-day. Why, she must be a 
regular little flirt ! ” 

“ Oh no, dear ! I did not mean any blame, and I don’t 
suppose the child would really take his compliments seriously, 
only you know what Arthur Calthwaite is — I never can quite 
trust him, in spite of his open countenance. I am afraid this 
young person will be something of a responsibility ! ” and 
Mary sighed. 

But Catherine laughed. “Nonsense, Mary, young people 
will be young people. The girl must take her chance, and 
you want your tea ! ” 

In another moment Ryder came rushing up, very hot and 
very red, and very disarranged. “ Hullo, Mary ! That’s 
right ! All is going on beautifully. Isn’t the weather perfect ? 
We are just going to get through the tea business, and then I 
hope there will be a little proper refreshment for us ! ” and he 
looked at Catherine as if to insinuate that the provision of 
creature comforts for the party was on her shoulders. 

But Catherine always declined any kind of responsibility. 
What she did must always be of free will and without 
compulsion. 

And as Ryder turned, he noticed Eleanor and her com- 
panion standing together laughing and chatting as if they had 
known each other for years, and something in the deferential 
attitude of the man and the slightly excited manner of the girl 
gave him an immediate shock. 

“ Mary ! ” he said under his breath, “ what on earth is that 
fellow doing with Miss Carradus ! How does he know her ? ” 

Mary started at his self-revealing tone, and she somehow 
felt suddenly as if she owed her brother an apology. 

“I’m sorry, Teddie; I really do not know why he has 
turned up. I understand that Polly performed the intro- 
duction. But you know I can’t help it now. We cannot be 
rude, and I shall be bound to ask him to join us at tea.” 


201 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ T really don’t see why ? ” said Ryder aggressively. “ He 
is a man I particularly object to ! ” 

“ Oh come, Ryder ! ” laughed Catherine. “ You do get 
such impressions ! Take life more easily, my boy. Besides, 
you are so terribly unsociable to your own class. There is a 
great danger in only enjoying the society of people in a lower 
rank than yourself. They may be very delightful, and very 
deferential, and it may be charming to feel yourself always 
cleverer, and better off, and more important than those around 
you; but it is shocking training! Besides, remember your 
Democratic principles! If all men are equal, perhaps those in 
your own position may be worthy of some small consideration!” 

Catherine dearly loved an opportunity of getting a good 
shot at Ryder, and if she had been a trifle less easy-going and 
inconsequent, her words might have had some effect, for 
Catherine very seldom spoke otherwise than with shrewdness ; 
but as it was, her little tirade only made him feel extremely 
ill-tempered, and he turned away hastily in case he should 
show too plainly how he regarded it 

Besides, he felt it hardly fair that he should have his tea en 
deshabille, and work himself hot and untidy, whilst this inter- 
loper — this handsome country gentleman, should have full leisure 
to entertain and ingratiate himself with the woman he had quite 
decided upon as his wife. And, as he turned off to the tea 
duties, he was the more annoyed at hearing a light rippling peal 
of laughter — such happy laughter as he knew full well no 
remarks of his had ever yet called forth. 

Now Ryder had never really failed in anything that he had 
seriously undertaken. He had had many difficulties, and 
much hard work, but so far life had shown him her successful 
side, and the idea that he, Ryder Glyn, might possibly be 
unsuccessful in anything upon which he had set his heart, 
came upon him with a strange sense of humiliation. 

The thought that he might be considered in the light of a 
fortune hunter had suggested itself to him, on the first night 
when the spell of the girl fell upon him, but since then he had 
brushed the idea aside as unworthy of consideration. 

14 


202 


T BACCA QUEEN 

So far he had passed through life under easy circumstances, 
with an assured position and an ample supply for all his 
needs. All Ryder’s knowledge of the world’s existence-battle had 
come to him secondhand. He himself had never known the 
storm-clouds of soul-distressful struggle, of maddening necessity, 
of the awful nightmare of failure, of unpreventable disaster, 
that clings round the early years of many a brave young heart, 
and it was to his credit, that in spite of his own personal ease, 
he had never relaxed his efforts ; had worked as hard, had 
taken as good a degree, was as effective a lawyer, as though he 
were fighting for his own foothold on the world’s crowded stage. 

As junior partner with his father he was possessed of a 
substantial income of his own, and he also enjoyed a hand- 
some share of his mother’s settlement. Besides that, the Glyn 
family was a solid one. Money was spent freely for comfort 
and for culture, but was not lost in luxurious extravagance or 
show. 

The Glyns had for generations been the Glyns of Farbiggin, 
and in this unassailable position they were content. As con- 
tentment has a wonderful knack of saving income and keeping 
capital together, so each succeeding generation found itself a 
little wealthier than the one before it. 

Therefore it was possible for Ryder to consider the person 
before the property, and in all honesty to ignore the ^100,000 
which would have been a temptation to many. 

Still, he had so far considered Eleanor’s position as his 
father’s ward, as to decide that it would ill become him to 
make anything like love to her until she had passed her 
twenty-first birthday. 

It was one thing, however, to hold aloof from Eleanor in 
order that she might peacefully enjoy her maiden solitude 
for a twelvemonth longer, it was quite another to leave her to 
the companionship of a dangerous rival, and it showed how 
new Ryder was to the sensation of love that he should have 
dreamed it possible to keep such a resolve without a severe 
struggle; and to-day he discovered in a moment how com- 
pletely he had in his own mind bespoken the girl for himself. 


203 


V BACCA QUEEN 

Curiously, the glimpse of possible failure for once destroyed 
his nerve and filled him with immediate despair, and during 
the short walk from the carriage to the cottages, from whence 
the tea was to be dispensed, Ryder had buried his chances, 
and was making up the form of words in which he should wish 
Eleanor joy, on the announcement of her engagement to her 
present companion. 

But Eleanor was by no means willing to forego any of the 
joys of the day, and when the Vicarage children went rushing 
off, and Rob cried out excitedly, “Oh, Miss Carradus, ar’n’t 
you coming to help to pour out the tea ? ” she turned with a 
laughing nod to Calth waite, “You may go along and rest 
yourself again ! I am going to work ! ” and she seized hold 
of Rob’s hand and ran forward to the scene of action. 

And Calthwaite, strolling after her, was soon as busily 
engaged in filling the quickly emptying mugs of the boys 
and girls, as if he had been a Sunday-school teacher all his 
life. 

“ If some of the men at the club could see me now ! ” he 
thought, laughing to himself. 

And if some of the men had seen him, they would merely 
have whistled low and said to themselves or each other, 
“ And what’s in the wind now ! ” 

As Eleanor passed from one group to another, her face rosy 
with the exertion of carrying a great stone jug full of the 
sweet mixture, and as she laughed with the boys and girls and 
took their jokes merrily, and apologised when her jug was 
empty and ran away for more, and spilled it on the way back 
and mocked at her own misfortune, there were many who gave 
her the fullest attention and who were not slow in pronouncing 
their opinion. 

Eleanor knew no one, and was unconsciously polite to all — • 
even the rude stare of Jane Ann, who held out her mug 
impertinently, and called her Miss Carradus with a strong 
emphasis on the Miss, did not disconcert her. 

“She’s a proper Scarthsider, is yon lass!” remarked old 
Betsy Hutton to her husband. “ Looks ta, David, she’s up to 


204 


V BACCA QUEEN 


their tricks a’ready ! She waint give yon lad any more tea 
because she seed him team his last lot on to t’ grund.” 

The tea jugs were kept severely in the possession of the 
teachers and certified helpers, until the boys and girls had been 
served, but after that any one might form a private tea-party ; 
so group after group of parents and grown-up people abstracted 
jugs for themselves, and made pleasant little picnic parties 
under the great trees, according to their several social dis- 
tinctions. 

As it was impossible to provide a cut-up bread and butter 
and cake tea for such a large number, each ticket-holder was 
provided with a sixteen-ounce, special spiced, fruit bun or loaf ; 
and it was surprising to notice what inroads the children, who 
had been on the alert for fun and pleasure from early morning 
to three o’clock in the afternoon, could make on this large 
quantity. 

Every one had a bun, and the Vicarage children were very 
anxious to secure their rightful share. 

“ I’ll give you sixpence, Rob,” called Ryder after her, “ if 
you will eat all that bun before you go to bed to-night.” 

“ Done ! ” she cried, taking a first substantial bite. 

“ She’ll manage it ! ” he remarked laughingly to a little group 
of old people who were busily bringing out their own private 
stores to add to the meal. 

“ Mannige ! ” retorted old Betsy ; “ yon lass wad mannige 
two on ’em easy ! ” 

“ Well, do you want any more tea, you old folks ? ” and he 
wailed, supporting the jug with his left hand. “ It will never 
do for the old ladies to go back to Farbiggin telling every one 
that we had grudged them their tea ! ” 

“ Eye ! stop a bit, Mr. Ryder ! — it’s ower hot. Bide while I 
sup this.” 

“ All right, Betsy. Well now, don’t you call this a lovely day ? 
Not much rheumatics about this time !” 

“ It’s grand ! Why, Mr. Ryder, it va near aulus grand fer 
Ottarthwaite. What I’se bin va near ivery Wissuntid sin afoor 
thee and Miss Mary theer larnt to suck yer thumbs ! ” 


V BACCA QUEEN 205 

“ Nonsense, Betsy ! ” he retorted ; “ why I don’t believe the 
school was built in those days. You are romancing ! ” 

“Romancin’ ! Tellin’ lees does ta mean? Fer sham, Mr. 
Ryder. T’ school was built reet enough, and theer was me, 
and happen a scoor mair as is in this park noo, as went tull 
Geordie Glyn’ Bible-class. Lads and lass togidder, and him 

no better nor a girt lad hissell ” 

“ Really ? Well you look thriving, any way, Mrs. Hutton ; 
the old school has done well by you.” 

“ Eye, and t’ auld lad’s proper strang and a’ ! He’s bad to 
beat at his age ! ” and she turned to her husband, who was sitting 
next to her with his handkerchief spread carefully over his 
knees to save his Sunday trousers. 

“Why it’s sixty year this Wissuntid sin t’ auld lad, he says 
to me, ‘ Betsy lass, will ta ha ma ? ’ And I says, ‘ David lad, 
if I wed tha will ta sarce ma ? ’ and he says, ‘ Gie ma a good 
yam to come back tull, and Is’e niver sarce tha ! ’ ” 

“ And did you never sauce her, David ? ” asked Ryder, his 
eyes twinkling, for he knew the old man’s acknowledged vigour 
and the sharpness of his tongue. 

“ Why, naa ! Not to call sarced ! Nobbut noo and agen 
when t’ childer was a bit boddersome, I telt her as she mud 
kep ’em oot o’t road a bit mair ! ” 

“ And what did you say to that, Betsy ? ” 

“ Why I telt him as I hed hed t’ childer a’ t’ day, and it 
was a job if their father couldn’t do wi’ ’em a bit of a neet ! ” 

“ And noo,” put in the old man with a sideways nod at his 
wife, “ theer’s naa peace even though t’ girt ’uns is all grawn 
up, for they bring their barns, and t’ auld lass, she’s fair daft wi’ 
her grandchilder.” 

“ Ger oot ! And what about t’ auld grandfather, eh ? ” and 
she turned sharply round. “ Look theer, Mr. Ryder ! ” 

And the whole group joined in the laugh as they saw one 
child leaning against the old man’s knee, and another pulling 
himself up by his shoulder, and a third pushing a sticky little 
hand into his coat pocket. 

“ Wha spoils t’ barns, eh ? ” and the old body laughed noisily. 


206 


T BACCA QUEEN 


At the moment Eleanor passed with Arthur Calthwaite, who 
was trying in vain to relieve her of her heavy jug. 

“ So yon’s t’ lass fra Germany ! ” said Betsy eagerly. 

“ Eh, moother, I telt tha ! ” answered one of her married 
daughters sitting beside her. 

“Noo, Mr. Ryder !” and Betsy pulled him down towards 
her, “ thee off and wed yon lass ! It’s aboot time as thoo was 
sattled. Young chaps like thee wi’ plenty o’ brass hes no call 
to keep t’ lasses waitin’. I was at thy father’s weddin’, and I 
mun be at thine ! ” 

“ Mother, behave ! ” said the husband shortly. 

“Thee behave thisell, lad?” she retorted. “What, it’s 
summat if I can’t say what I like to Geordie Glyn’ young ’un. 
Why, yon lass theer, is hawf a Scarthsider, and we’se a’ be prood 
if she weds a Glyn ! ” 

But Ryder pulled his arm away and laughed. 

“ Look, ’dad ! I’se med him blush ! Theer’s grand roses ! 
Naa theer’s na need to sham thisell. Nobbut thee be sharp 
lad, or yon feller ower t’ theer ’ull be afoor tha ! ” 

“ You’re a grand matchmaker, Mrs. Hutton ! ” said Ryder 
good-naturedly. “ When I’ve settled the day I’ll be sure to let 
you know. My wedding would hardly be complete without 
the two oldest Scarth scholars, and one of them the handsomest 
old lady on the ground.” 

“ Noo, thoo’s blushin’, grandmoother ! ” said one of the 
children ; and Betsy, smiling with the compliment, expostulated 
with her customary “Ger along wi’ tha ! Well thoo let me kna 
in good time, so as I can save my suvereigns fer t’ weddin’ 
present ! ” 

And now at last the weary workers had a moment to them- 
selves. Mary’s carriage was drawn up quite close to the tree, 
and Catherine was busily attending to her wants, and those of 
Sybil who was seated in great state beside her. 

Maud and Polly turned themselves into waitresses, and were 
most diligent in plying the circle with the dainty viands. 

Rob resolutely resisted all food. 

“ When Uncle Ryder has offered me sixpence, if I eat this 


T BACCA QUEEN 207 

bun to-day, I cannot eat anything else, for sixpence is not to 
be despised.” 

So she worked away steadily at her sixteen ounces, quite 
regardless of the remonstrances of the others. 

“ Don’t you think, grandpapa, that it’s rather rude of people 
to talk in languages that other people don’t understand ? ” 
asked Polly, apparently apropos of nothing in particular. 

Mr. Glyn paused. “ My dear, that is rather an awkward 
sentence. I am not good at conundrums ! ” 

“Well, you know, grandpapa, I was looking after Miss 
Carradus quite nicely, and we were engaged in interesting con- 
versation, when Mr. Calthwaite came up interfering, and in a 
few minutes they were talking German, and I could hardly 
understand a single word !” and Polly looked up at the young 
man with something like a scowl. 

“ Don’t you learn German at school, my dear ? ” asked Mr. 
Glyn peacefully. 

“Oh, not the kind of German they were talking, grandpapa ! ” 

“ We must speak to your father, my dear. Henry, I am 
afraid that your school fees are being wasted. Here is a young 
person who is learning the wrong kind of German ! ” 

But the Vicar was round the other side of the tree, searching 
for a special biscuit for Sybil. 

“ Now, grandpapa, you really are very tiresome,” expostulated 
Polly. “It was not about my German I asked you, but whether 
you don’t think it was very rude.” 

“ I suppose, Miss Polly,” said Arthur Calthwaite gracefully, 
“that you consider that I owe you some apology. Please 
accept it, and take at the same time this piece of pie.” 

“ Oh, well ! ” she returned most ungraciously, “ I suppose I 
shall have to accept the apology, and I only hope that it will 
never occur again. Oh no, thanks, I don’t want the pie.” 

Everybody laughed, and Rob broke in : “ Don’t be silly, 
Polly. Remember Miss Carradus loves German, and so does 
Aunt Mary, but we don’t, and Uncle Ryder doesn’t — and 
grandpapa doesn’t, so I expect she thought Mr. Calthwaite 
quite a find. Now didn’t you, Miss Carradus?” 


208 


V BACCA QUEEN 

Rob was standing in front of her with her legs stretched 
wide apart, and her huge bun in her hand. 

Eleanor blushed slightly and replied sedately, “ Of course it 
is very amusing to meet with the German in such very charm- 
ing English surroundings.” 

“And such German ! ” laughed Calth waite lightly. “Why, 
Miss Polly, if you had only understood all my blunders, any 
respect you might possibly have for me would have vanished.’’ 

“Well, it’s a blessing, Uncle Ryder, that you are properly 
English, and don’t worry us with German,” said Polly, settling 
herself close up against her young uncle. 

“ It is certainly as well to keep in your good books, Polly,’ 
he replied; “ but there, I think we had better see if Aunty Mary 
has everything.” 

But the Vicar was looking well after his sister, who was 
enjoying the beauties of the scene, and chatting to one and 
another who came up to speak to her, while Sybil sat very wide- 
eyed listening to the conversation, and filling up every pause 
with her twittering little tongue. 

And meanwhile round another tree there was a further 
group, consisting of William Carradus and his wife and 
family, little Jacky and Nell, Nell’s brother and sisters, and 
Sarah Jameson and John Fleming, all partaking of Janet’s 
ample store of provisions. 

Dicky felt himself extremely important, and begged that 
Tom also might share Mrs. Carradus’s extra dainties; and 
Tom was allowed the privilege and enjoyed the honour, but, 
like a true sportsman, reserved the provision until after his 
race. 

And as they all sat there enjoying themselves, there were 
Scarthsiders who regarded them suspiciously, watching if per- 
chance they could trace signs of that upliftedness which must 
certainly appear sooner or later with the possession of “^6,000 
amang ’em.” 

Bella Lancaster, Jane Ann and Ben, Katie Benson, and 
some others seated at a little distance, commented in anything 
but flattering terms on them. But there were special reasons 


T BACCA QUEEN 209 

for jealousy on the part of most of these mentioned. As for 
Katie Benson, she was feeling herself slighted to an unusual 
degree. She had been coming to the conclusion that her 
“boy” Dicky was getting a little uncertain, and she had 
therefore made overtures to Tom, which had on the whole 
been favourably received, and now to see him peacefully 
absorbed into the Great House circle, while she herself was 
left out, was quite too much for her equanimity. 

“ Looks ta ! ” she exclaimed petulantly to Bella. “ Theer’s 
Tom gerring prood noo ! I wonder wha will be t’ next ? It’s 
summut when t’ lads teks to currin pasty and pork pies, 
leavin’ their lasses to fill theersells wi’ t’ school bun ! ” 

John Fleming, however, was happy at having at last secured 
a word or two with Nell, and, as it was well acknowledged that 
he was courting her, there was no need for him to disguise his 
intention ; and Nell, being happy and in good spirits, was her 
most charming self, and when she promised him that she 
would meet him down by the river as soon as the races were 
over and he was at liberty, his cup of happiness was full. 

The races were immensely successful. Dicky standing up 
in Miss Glyn’s carriage, had the joy of seeing Tom triumphantly 
win his first heat and then his final. 

“ In the midst of life we are in death,” and there was an 
instant during the excitement when Mary’s eyes filled with 
sudden tears — the instant when pale little Dicky shrilled forth 
his ringing cheer as Tom rushed against the tape at the 
winning-post. 

And Dicky, looking down for sympathy in his joy, saw the 
dimmed eyes, and exclaimed in astonishment, “Why, Miss 
Mary, and ar’n’t you glad as Tom’s beat?” 

And Mary smiled back at the boy and replied, “ Oh yes, 
dear, very, very glad! Nearly as glad as you are!” 

And when some time later Tom came up to the carriage 
for the prize which Mary was presenting, she shook hands 
and wished him victory through life, and the boy at her side 
remarked tranquilly, “ It’s queer, Miss Mary, but I don’t seem 
as if I cared about yon prize. I is glad as he’s getten it ! ” 


210 T BACCA QUEEN 

Eleanor was exceedingly amused at the races, and she could 
not help admiring the infinite patience of the Vicar and Ryder 
as they prepared the half-naked, stocking-footed competitors, 
and settled disputes and kept somewhat turbulent waters, 
smooth. 

Calthwaite looked on also and joined in the enthusiasm, 
adding special prizes with great generosity, and enjoyed the 
fun because of the delight of the girl, who was entering into 
the spirit of the occasion with such zest. 

“ I telt tha, David, as she was a proper Scarthsider ! ” 
remarked old Betsy, as she noted Eleanor straining herself 
forward and cheering with the rest. 

And Eleanor thought that “ Prince Arthur ” was quite the 
most charmingly good-natured man she had come across for 
a long time, and she was exceedingly sorry when, as had been 
previously arranged, the time came for her to drive home with 
Miss Glyn. 

“ And have you really to go so soon, Miss Carradus ? ” 
Calthwaite asked, in a disappointed tone. 

“ Yes, I am afraid so,” she returned regretfully. “ Oh, this 
has been a delightful day ! ” 

“ Quite a Red Letter day to me ! ” he returned, looking at 
her fearlessly. “ I can only hope ” 

“ Eleanor dear, if you don’t mind ? ” called Mary. 

And Eleanor, after giving her hand for a moment, in which 
time he managed to bestow a sudden intense pressure, jumped 
into the carriage. 

And during the return journey Eleanor chattered about 
anything and everything in her usual manner, but never 
once mentioned Calthwaite ; and Mary decided that young 
girls were an anxiety, and that she was very tired. 


CHAPTER XXIV 

The happy little river Moss, which hurried along from Far- 
biggin down to the sleepy sands, had made its way far below 


21 1 


T BACCA QUEEN 

the level of the Park, and there was a steep bank, partly- 
wooded and partly covered with coarse tufted grass, which led 
from the flat ground above to the shingly bed below. 

On the occasion of the Whitsuntide excursion the junior 
boys and girls were strictly forbidden to go anywhere near the 
river, as this part of the ground took them out of the sight of 
the teachers, and there was a certain amount of danger to 
reckless youngsters. 

But to the grown-up people there was refreshment in being 
able to get away from the crowd, and to wander along the 
banks and hear the cool gurgle of the clear water far below 
so busily intensifying the colourings of the rocks and pebbles 
of its river bed. And Nell, seated on a bank littered with 
last year’s ruddy beech leaves through which the green moss 
crept up smiling, enjoyed the peacefulness of the solitude she 
had found. She was thinking thoughts, odd, inconsequent 
thoughts, which chased each other through her mind without 
any apparent connection. Keenly alive in all her senses to 
her surroundings, she sighed with utter pleasure as her eyes 
took in the loveliness of the scene in front of her. 

The river so far below appeared so mysteriously from round 
the wooded corner to her right, and disappeared down a sudden 
drop in the rocky bed, and the roar of the plunge, subdued 
by the distance, filled all the air with vibrating harmony. 
And just across the river the ground ascended in copse wood, 
the tender greens and browns fast covering the darkness of 
the wintry trunks and branches, and beneath, in reposeful sim- 
plicity, lay the under-colour of deep hyacinth blue and the 
lightest emerald shades of the new grass and uncurling 
bracken and the pinky whiteness of the delicate anemone; 
while away above and beyond the woodlands lay the young 
cornfields, and the quickly swelling hay-grass breathing in 
contentedly the sweet summer air under the light of the 
evening sky. 

“ Yon river hes coom from Farbiggin,” thought Nell, and 
with the thought, her mind leaped back to her old life and her 
new ambitions. 


212 


T BACCA QUEEN 

To-day she had been very happy. Yes, happy, in spite of 
the bitterness of seeing her rival feted and admired. Happy, 
for she, the ’Bacca Queen, had also been feted and com- 
plimented and chaffed and flattered, and even now she was 
waiting for some one whom every one was telling her was 
breaking his heart for her ! And yet, what was the good of it 
all? What was coming out of all this life of hers? Her eyes 
looked at the beautiful scene, but her mind saw the little 
kitchen at home to-night — the children tired and cross, her 
mother drunk, and either noisy or sickenly fulsome. And 
to-morrow the tobacco shop ! Oh, the weary round of it all ! 
That girl, Eleanor Carradus, had just driven away in a carriage 
and pair to comfort, refinement, and rest. She had noted Mr. 
Calthwaite dangling round after her. She wondered vaguely 
what it felt like to be courted by a real gentleman. 

Again she thought of John Fleming. He was a good lad, 
very — but that was the worst of it. He was too good for her : 
he was religious, and she — what was she ? And then she took 
to wondering why he had not kept his promise. It was getting 
late. All the time was slipping away. It was too bad of him 
not to come ! Not, of course, that she cared. He needn’t 
come if he didn’t want to ! 

But John Fleming, panting to fulfil his promise, has been 
captured by Ryder, who has insisted that he, and he alone, was 
capable of helping him to set off his balloons ; and between 
duty and pleasure, duty, as usual with John, conquered, and 
Nell waited in vain. 

Soon after the carriage had driven away Calthwaite managed 
to take his leave of Catherine, who was quite preoccupied, 
thinking how she could best catch the Vicar, and make 
him see that all the children arrived safely at the boat. 
So she held out her hand in her most distant manner, and 
hardly heard him remark that he meant to follow the river 
path home. 

The grounds of Calthwaite came down to the river-side, 
about three miles further up the river in the Farbiggin direc- 
tion, and so there was nothing strange in his taking that way. 


T BACCA QUEEN 213 

So he wandered off, and no one thought anything more 
about him. 

A path ran in and out amongst the woods and fields all the 
way to Farbiggin, and as Calthwaite came along he discovered 
Nell seated on the mossy bank with a far away look in her great 
brown eyes. She was seated a little off the regular footpath, 
so he walked along the grass softly. 

Nell was startled by hearing a voice close beside her saying 
gently, “ Will you allow me to pass ? ” 

Now Nell had chosen a position where she thought Fleming 
would have considerable difficulty in finding her, and she had 
promised herself some fun when she heard him searching 
about in vain, so she turned and looked round in some 
surprise. 

“What for ? ” she asked testily, looking straight up at the man 
standing beside her. 

“ Oh, there is no need if it troubles you ! ” 

Nell recognised Mr. Calthwaite at once. She knew him 
perfectly well by sight, and she had moreover noticed his 
attentions to Eleanor. 

“ Naa, it’s no bother, but this is nut your road ! ” 

“ Perhaps not, but I should like to see for myself what you 
find so lovely here. There must be something beautiful to look 
at to judge by your face ! ” 

Nell looked him up and down as if to take his measure, and 
a shade of suspicion crossed her face, for Nell was, as she 
herself would have expressed it, “Not exactly a fool!” 

And Calthwaite noted the expression and decided that some 
cleverness would be needed to grasp this quarry, but he also 
decided that the game was well worth while. 

“ But perhaps you are waiting for some one?” 

He smiled insinuatingly and the girl took offence instantly, 
and her pride rose to think that he should imagine she was 
waiting for some one who had failed her. 

“ Naa, I’se nut ! ” she remarked stolidly. 

“Then perhaps you can spare a moment to show me the 
beauties of the place. I don’t often have the pleasure ” 


214 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ I wasn’t waitin’ for you, any way ! ” she interrupted. 
“Happen you’d better be off after yon carriage, and get a 
fortune for yerself off my cousm Eleanor Carradus ! ” 

“ Your cousin ! ” He was surprised into showing his 
surprise. 

Nell laughed. “Aye, yon Eleanor Carradus as you’ve been 
carrying on wi’ t’ maist of t’ afternoon is my cousin. Least- 
ways her father and my mother was brother and sister. What 
do you mek o’ that ? ” 

Here was certainly a surprise. Calthwaite had heard, of 
course, that Eleanor possessed Scarth relatives. That had been 
a matter for common talk and common surmising, but this par- 
ticular denouement caused him to pull himself up for a moment, 
and reconsider his plans. 

“ I did not see you talking much to her ! ” he remarked 
incredulously. 

Nell laughed again, such a musical, rich laugh. “Wad a 
lass wi’ a fortune behint her, talk tull a ’Bacca shop lass, think 
ya?” 

“ Ah ! ” A sudden rush of remembrance. The High Street. 
The tall girl walking amongst the tobacco factory girls. This 
was the connection that had been worrying him all the after- 
noon. Of course the tall girl in the street, and the tall, white 
frocked figure sitting on the mossy grass were identical. 

Again she laughed, quizzically. “ Why, what’s wrang ? ” 

If Jack did not choose to come (and Nell was growing 
decidedly impatient) there could be no harm in having a little 
fun. She would pretend she was a lady, and find out what it 
felt like to be courted by a gentleman. For Nell was perfectly 
aware that the manner of the man meant more than mere 
politeness. 

And Calthwaite, who had been intending sport from the 
beginning, continued, “ Oh, nothing, only now I know where I 
once saw you before. It was in the High Street.” 

“ I’se sin you many a hundred times in t’ High Street. Why 
that’s nowt ! Was I, think ya, in my ’bacca frock ? ” 

“ I don’t remember the frock,” he replied, looking at her 


V BACCA QUEEN 215 

earnestly, “ but I remember the face ! It was one I could 
never forget ! ” 

Nell suddenly began to feel a little bit solitary, and she 
made an attempt to rise. 

“ Oh, don’t go just yet ! ” he pleaded ; “ why I don’t even 
know your name yet ! ” 

“ My name’s easy enough to remember ! It’s t’ saam as t’ 
other lass’s — Eleanor Carradus — nobbut they ca’ me Nell.” 

“Nell!” He repeated the little syllable almost tenderly. 
“ That is a nicer name than Eleanor. It suits you exactly ! ” 

“Rubbish! ” she retorted; yet still bent on fun she waited to 
hear more. It would be nice for once to hear what a gentle- 
man thought about her. It would be fun to tease Sarah about 
it afterwards — Sarah, who lectured her on her lightness. She 
wondered, moreover, what he had been saying to her cousin, 
and a wild desire seized her to see whether “Nell of the 
Scarth” could not beat “ Eleanor of The Abbey ! ” She would 
rejoice if she could prove her charms superior to those of that 
golden-haired chit, who had done her and her family such 
injury. 

And all the while Nell thought she was quite able to take 
care of herself. 

“ Nell ! ” called a voice from above them, “ Nell ! ” 

Calth waite started, but Nell touched him lightly on the arm. 
“ Bide whar you are. It’s now’t ! ” 

“ Nell, where are you ? ” and the voice sounded disap- 
pointedly. 

Still the girl sat motionless, and the owner of the voice 
passed away down the footpath towards the left. 

“ Nell ! Nell ! ” They heard it fainter and more faintly and 
then no more, and all was as it had been again. 

And Nell thought to herself, “ He should ha coom when he 
said. I wasn’t med to bide all t’ efternoon for him ! ” 

And then Nell knew that she had acted meanly and wrongly 
and quite unworthily, and if she had dared she would have 
jumped up, and called out in her turn, “ Jack — Jack ! It’s a’ 
reet. I’se here ! ” 


2l6 


T BACCA QUEEN 


But Calthwaite had already seen his chance, and he took it 
as he said, with a half-smile on his lips, “ Ah, then you were 
waiting for some one after all ! Rather a tardy lover. Shall I 
call him for you ? ” 

And Nell looking up defiantly, lied in his face, remarking 
with a laugh, “ Call wha ? Theer’s more Nells on t’ Scarth 
than Nell Carradus ! ” 

And the smile diplomatically faded from Calthwaite’s face, 
as he threw himself down on the ground beside her, and 
remarked with all earnestness, “ I beg your pardon, Miss Nell. 
I hope you do not mind my using that dear little name ? ” 

“ What a cheek this man hes ! ” thought Nell. 

It struck her as curious that he should be able to say pretty 
things so freely and so easily. She had been used to having 
compliments, but they were usually jerked at her, and thrown 
at her, and especially promising ones were generally broken off 
half-way, ending in a stammer or an awkward pause which 
always made her feel inclined to mock. 

So being determined, she knew not why, to play the game 
out, she retorted with a toss of her head, “It meks na odds 
what you call ma ! I’se aulus getten Nell and I’se used 
tull it!” 

“ That’s all right ! ” he returned serenely, “ then we under- 
stand each other now, and can enjoy ourselves ; but I have first 
of all a confession to make to you ! ” 

She looked at him inquiringly. 

“Yes,” he thought, “she’s worth it! She’s worth a dozen 
of the other. By Jove, what a style — head, hair, forehead, 
eyes, mouth, chin ! Angel or she-devil, I wonder ? ” 

And as he paused she returned — 

“ Well ? Confess away. Pity I isn’t auld Father Michael- 
son ! ” 

“My confession is very short,” he replied very gently. “I 
only want to tell you, Miss Nell, that I have made a mistake 
this afternoon — I have been courting the wrong cousin ! ” 

Had she won, then, so soon ? A deep red dyed Nell’s neck 
and face. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


217 


Was it shame or triumph ? 

“ Are you courtin’ now ? ” she asked pointedly. 

“ What do you think ? ” 

“ Naa, I kna nowt aboot gentry ways.” 

“You have never told me yet what you think so lovely in 
this place you have chosen ! ” he remarked, gracefully sliding 
away from her question. 

“ Do you know Tennyson ? ” she asked unexpectedly. 

“Oh yes! Why?” 

“ Then say me some ! ” 

“ Say you some ? ” 

“ Eye, I thowt as t’ gentry was fond o’ poetry ! ” 

But Calthwaite could not have remembered a line of Tenny- 
son to save a kingdom, and Nell made a mental note of the 
fact to the distinct uplifting of Jack in her estimation. 

“ I like practical poetry the best,” he replied readily, return- 
ing to a phrase he had found useful once before that day. 

“ What’s yon sort ? ” 

“ Oh, the poetry of life and sunshine and beautiful 
women ! ” 

“Do you mean as you think I’se a beautiful woman?” The 
question sounded self-conscious, but this time Nell spoke in 
all seriousness. She really wanted to know. “ You needn’t 
think as I’m shamed on it,” she continued, “ I didn’t mek 
mysell, that’s certain.” 

“Miss Nell ! ” he returned impulsively, “ you are wonderful ! 
You are divine — you are glorious ! Why, if you only cared you 
might ” 

“ But as I’s only a ’Bacca lass, Mr. Calthwaite, you’d best 
stop,” she interrupted. Even Nell was alarmed at his ardour. 
“ Theer niver was no good com o’ gentlefolk talkin’ to work- 
in’ lasses. Oh, I kna weel enough ! ” The tone was very 
bitter now. The dream was fading, and the echo of that dis- 
appointed “ Nell, Nell ! ” was in her ears, and the wind began 
to blow a little cold against her thinly-covered shoulders. 

She rose abruptly. “ What time is it ? ” 

Calthwaite took out his watch and spoke reassuringly, “ Oh, 

15 


2l8 


T BACCA QUEEN 


not late, not late at all. Only- half-past six. Oh, please don’t 
hurry ! ” as he saw her startled face. 

“ Half- past six ! ” she repeated, in a kind of scream, “ Then 
I’se missed the boat. They start at half-past six, and they are 
nearly a mile away ! ” 

Here was luck. Really Calthwaite could hardly control 
his countenance to say, “I’m very sorry, very sorry 
indeed.” 

“ Good heavens ! ” ejaculated the girl, more to herself than 
her companion. “ Here’s a mess ! Get along ! ” and she 
glared at Calthwaite. “What did you come botherin’ folk 
for and complimentin’ and playin’ the fool ? Stick to thy 
awn sheep ! ” 

“ I am really awfully sorry, Miss Nell. I am, indeed!” and 
his voice sounded exceedingly penitent ; “ I never dreamed 
that your party left the Park so early. Now, tell me — how can 
I help you ? ” 

He knew that there was no help, but that a long walk 
home was inevitable, and he was already gloating over the 
lucky chance so simply thrown in his way. 

It was certainly hopeless to try and catch the boat, that Nell 
knew. 

But Nell was not easily beaten, so she tried to put the matter 
off with a laugh. 

“ Help? Naa ! You can’t help. I’se joost hev to walk it, 
that’s a’, and sarve me reet for listenin’ to sic foolery. What, 
it’s nobbut five mile, and theer’s many a scoor o’ young uns as 
’ull ha tramped theer and back. But I mun hurry ! I mun be 
i’ Farbiggin by t’ time t’ boats is in ! ” 

“ Then we will set off at once, Miss Nell. The river path is 
quite the shortest, and certainly the pleasantest.” 

“ We ! ” said Nell ; “I’se gaain alaan ! ” 

“Oh, Miss Nell!” 

“None o’ your Miss Nell’s for me. I tell ye I’se gadin 
alaan ! ” and she scrambled down on to the path beneath and 
set off in an easy, rapid stride homewards. 

Now Nell would not have for a moment admitted even to 


V BACCA QUEEN 219 

herself that she was afraid, yet she kept up her steady pace, 
and never turned to see if she were followed. 

But Calthwaite followed, keeping her well in sight, and waited 
his opportunity. It is a difficult matter to keep two strings to 
one bow in right good order, and Calthwaite was glad of a few 
minutes to consider whether he was not after all acting fool- 
ishly and perhaps a trifle madly. 

If this girl striding along in front of him, this girl with the 
step of a princess and the pose of a Grecian goddess, were 
really the cousin of that golden nugget he had just been 
amusing himself with all the afternoon, he was possibly play- 
ing a risky game — he might find himself risking his chance of 
marriage with the one, in his chase after sport with the other. 

Of course marriage with the “ Princess ” was out of the ques- 
tion, could not even come as a passing thought through his 
brain ; but good heavens ! men must enjoy themselves some- 
how, and it was so deathly dull at home. Girls of that class 
were not like ordinary women. They enjoyed attention, and 
he was giving her as much as he expected to take. 

The stately Lady Margaret had bored him only less than he 
had bored her, and at the sight of the figure in front of him he 
threw aside the last remembrance of her with positive rapture. 
Of course this quest was a risk, but it was too late now. He 
must get something out of this girl — if not to-night — well, 
there was a vague future, and again he remembered how ex- 
ceedingly dull he was. At any rate it was not for him to let 
her slip away. 

So Calthwaite quickened his pace, and the girl quickened 
hers, and then considering that she never fled from any one or 
anything in her life, and feeling secure in the power of her 
strong frame and muscular shoulders, she allowed the inevitable, 
and as he caught her up she exclaimed mockingly, “ I can gaa 
fast, you see, Mr. Calthwaite, when I’se in a hurry. Why, 
you’re quite out of breath! There’s a soft bank theer to 
rest on — lig thisell doon.” 

“ Miss Nell,” he expostulated, “ I cannot think why you are 
so rude, you know ! ” 


220 


V BACCA QUEEN 


Nell laughed a short laugh and kept up the pace. 

“ Theer’s happen two mile yet to your house, so I’d best 
wish you good neet ! You’ll niver ha’ no breath to keep up 
wi’ me ! ” 

“ But, Miss Nell, I don’t understand. Surely you are not 
afraid of me ? ” 

“Afraid!” Nell repeated the humiliating word softly to 
herself. “ Mr. Calthwaite, I’se best be plain ! If I was a lady 
I wadn’t be afraid, but being what I is, you’d best go ! ” 

“You don’t mean to say that you think I wish to treat you 
otherwise than a lady ? Oh, Miss Nell !” and he dropped his 
voice reproachfully. 

Nell said nothing but stalked forward again. 

“ I know what you mean ! Oh, I know what you mean well 
enough, but Miss Nell, do you imagine that I could think of 
you as I do, and must think of you, and dare to treat you with 
disrespect ? ” 

“ I don’t know what you call disrespect,” the girl replied 
over her shoulder, “ but I do kna what I think on a man as 
follews a lass as doesn’t want him ! ” 

“ But you do want me, Miss Nell ! ” and he laid his hand on 
her arm. 

Nell turned on him fiercely, shaking him off with a quick 
jerk. “ You’re a liar ! I did ! Yes, I did ; but I don’t now! 
I know your sort. Gaa to my cousin. Follow her when she 
doesn’t want you, and see what she hes to say ! ” 

But Calthwaite, not yet knowing the girl, came forward and 
again put his hand on her shoulder, and said softly, “ Now, 
Nell, won’t you ” 

“ If I hed George Glyn for a guardian do you think as you 
wad dare to touch ma ? ” the girl cried, springing from him and 
turning round with her hands clenched tightly. 

Calthwaite was struck dumb at the fury of the girl, and, 
having an eye to the future, and being of a dogged character 
when he set himself, he decided that a handsome retreat was 
at present the most prudent and the most telling stroke. 

He waited until he imagined the storm waves had somewhat 


221 


T BACCA QUEEN 

abated, then he said courteously, yet with a certain reserved 
reproach in his voice — 

“ Of course if you choose to misunderstand — if you choose to 
think that I am unworthy of your respect, I have nothing more 
to say. I have tried to show you that I feel nothing but 
kindliness towards you, and when you go home I think you 
will realise that I have done nothing towards yourself unworthy 
of a gentleman — and a lover ! Good evening ! ” And 
solemnly and deferentially raising his hat, he walked quickly 
past ; turning off on to a little footpath that led to the high- 
road, he left her. 

When Nell was quite sure that he had really gone, she gave 
a sigh of mingled relief and disappointment. 

The right side of her was relieved, but the little incident 
again, brought forward that old, weary question — 

“ If I had been a lady ! ” There was the point. She was 
nothing. Nothing but a nameless wastrel, whom any man 
considered he had a right to take advantage of. 

The old hints and arguments so oft reiterated by her mother 
rose before her again, and she was frightened to find that she 
was pleased that this beauty of hers had been corroborated by 
the expression of this man — a gentleman, one who had been 
about the world, and had seen many women. This man had 
told her to-night that she was beautiful, and had openly 
declared himself her lover. 

How she had in her heart of hearts prized the little title she 
received from her simple Scarth courtiers. But suppose the 
court should be widened ; suppose — Oh, the idea was intoxi- 
cating. 

So Nell humoured the ambitions pressing through her mind, 
and the subtle flattery worked as she hurried along. Some- 
times the narrow path crossed the open field, then it turned 
under the tall trees which shadowed Nell protectingly as she 
passed under them, now it pressed through the plantations of 
hazel, and wych elms, and raspberry canes, and brambles and 
briars which stretched themselves across the path, and clung 
now and again to Nell’s muslins. 


22 2 


V BACCA QUEEN 

But for once Nell passed unconscious of the allurements of 
nature around her, and she never even saw the wonder of the 
evening sky, and she knew not that she herself walked along 
tinted with the sunset glory. 

It was the flattery — the flattery expressed so much more in 
the tone than in any words said — that was working so in- 
sidiously. 

The quiet manners, the refined voice, had been sweet to her 
ears. Then when she came to consider the events of the last 
short hour, she could not recall that her companion had done 
anything disrespectful regarding her. 

Had she after all been nothing but a terror-stricken girl ? 
The blood flamed under her dark complexion again at the 
humiliating thought. 

For Nell knew that she — she, Nell Carradus — had been 
frightened ; she realised that her cool, insolent manner had 
been expressly designed to cover the dread beating of her 
turbulent heart. 

The horror of what had happened to others had seized upon 
her. She had felt her maiden purity challenged, this part of 
herself which she had so often before preserved with a fierce 
jealousy as being the last strand which linked her to the higher 
world around, and which she had so long and so proudly 
regarded with complaisancy ; and all the womanhood in her 
had leaped up to protect this maidenhood from touch or taint. 

But as she grew calmer it struck her with mortifying disgust 
that perhaps it had all been a mistake, and that the man had 
meant no harm ; had, perhaps, really intended honourable 
courtship. 

So, with her mind in a whirl, she reached Farbiggin, and 
found all the streets crowded with returning excursionists, both 
from the boats and from the railway station. 

In answer to many inquiries Nell laughed gaily, and pro- 
claimed the fact that she had missed the boat and walked 
home. 

And Sarah, meeting her in the High Street, expostulated 
with her; “But, Nell, what didn’t ta come on to the Canal 


r BACCA QUEEN 223 

bank for, we were all wondering where thoo was ? Whichiver 
way did ta gaa?” 

“ Why, Sally lass, does ta think as wheri I found I’d missed 
t’ boat as I was gaain’ to mek a fule o’ mysell by trampin’ on 
t’ towin’-path all t’ way amang t’ childer as hesn’ tickuts ? ” 

But somehow she neglected to make fun with Sarah over the 
real adventure of the evening. 

And when she met Fleming she passed with a grim look of 
displeasure. But he came up boldly, and walked beside her 

and began his apology, “ Nell dear, I was so sorry, I ” 

“ Oh, don’t thee apologise, John Fleming ; I can wait thy 
time — oh no, it meks na matter. Good-neet ! ” 

And she pushed him away, and as John Fleming never 
pressed his attentions on Nell he left her, and his explanation 
remained unsaid. 

Nell turned and looked at him as he walked away, and she 
very nearly cried out, “ Jack, Jack, it’s a’ reet ; ” but again the 
words died on her lips and she let him go, and on reaching 
home she found all there exactly in the condition she had 
pictured to herself as she sat by the sunlit river. 


CHAPTER XXV 

After her husband’s death the one task in life which Mrs. 
Calthwaite had set herself was the preservation of the comfort 
and temper of her only son Arthur. 

The comfort of her only daughter Gertrude was of compara- 
tively little importance. Gertrude was getting on now. She 
was well past thirty, she was extremely plain, she had never to 
her mother’s knowledge had an offer of marriage, and her 
temper was a negligible factor, as it never rose beyond the 
boundary line of mild remonstrance or cynical remark. 

And of course Arthur was the heir to Calthwaite, though, 
curiously his father had preferred to leave his wife in full 
possession for the remainder of her life. 

This arrangement was extremely resented by the son, who 


224 T BACCA QUEEN 

felt justified in expressing his annoyance quite freely, not only 
at home, where it was a constant topic of grievance, but to all 
his off-hand acquaintances. 

Mrs. Calthwaite, from the moment of her husband’s death, 
took up an apologetic attitude towards her son, and her whole 
life had been an apology ever since. 

In fact, as she continually told the long-suffering Gertrude, 
“ You see, my dear, we must consider that Arthur is naturally 
disappointed, and any little thing I can do to make him happy, 
and feel independent and contented, is certainly my very first 
duty.” 

So Arthur came and went as he chose, received abundant 
allowance for all his outside expenses, and controlled every- 
thing that was done and arranged inside the home. 

And Mrs. Calthwaite, having seriously set herself to the 
task of voluntarily effacing herself and her own concerns before 
her son, was sometimes surprised and a little hurt when the 
son demanded that effacement as a right. 

Not that Calthwaite ever forgot himself so far as to be 
actually rude to his mother. But he had long learnt to steadily 
pursue his own way, and with a smile or an argument to bow 
her before him. 

Mrs. Calthwaite was on the whole happy in her servitude. 
For when she bowed, he smiled — and to be smiled upon by 
Arthur was this woman’s present earthly bliss. And notwith- 
standing the fact that naturally Mrs. Calthwaite was a shrewd 
woman, with a keen sense of humour and a high ideal, in the 
reaction which followed the shock of her husband’s death, she 
had wilfully blinded herself to faults she understood far better 
than the wisest of those friends, who would have been delighted 
to instruct her. But life is short, and blindness is sometimes 
very comfortable. 

That dull, conventional woman Gertrude had “no patience” 
with Arthur, and at times she told him so, which did no good, 
and only caused her a morning’s irritation. But even a down- 
right exasperating grievance is a relief in some very monotonous 
existences. 


V BACCA QUEEN 22 5 

“ My dear Gertrude,” said her mother on Whit Tuesday 
evening, “ I believe I hear Arthur at last. Ring the bell for 
dinner at once.” 

“ Half an hour late,” remarked Gertrude, rising. She was 
of medium height with a plain, sensible face with no preten- 
sions to goods looks, but the faultlessly cut black evening 
gown and generally well-maided appearance did a great deal 
for Miss Calthwaite. 

And then Arthur strolled in, in his morning garb, as though 
there were nothing at all the matter. 

“ Dinner is waiting, my dear ! ” said his mother, with a 
deprecating smile on her face. 

“ Ah, then I’d better go and dress,” and he strolled away 
for another half-hour, thereby driving the kitchen department 
distracted, while Gertrude sat working for her latest Bazaar 
with a look on her face suggestive of mingled exasperation and 
resignation. 

“ You don’t ask me where I have been, mother,” Arthur 
remarked when the servant had finally left the room. He 
was arrayed in faultless evening dress and the subdued lamp- 
shine softened the faces of the three seated at the well- 
appointed and delicately decorated table. 

Mrs. Calthwaite was instantly on the alert, beaming and 
smiling and inquiring for the required information. 

“Well, dear, and what have you been doing? Something 
more interesting, I hope, than has fallen to the share of either 
Gertrude or me, I expect.” 

“ Well, if you must know the truth, I have been to Ottar- 
th waite to help to play with the school children.” 

“ The truth ! ” laughed his mother. “ Now you cannot 
persuade me that school children were the object.” 

“ Well, mother, then I must put you in the way of guessing 
by saying that I think it would be a good thing if you and 
Gertrude were to take the opportunity of calling at The Abbey 
and making the acquaintance of the new importation.” 

“Ah!” ejaculated Gertrude, raising her brows. “What 
another, Arthur, and so soon ? ” 


226 


T BACCA QUEEN 


He laughed pleasantly. “Yes another, madam ! A man 
must marry, you know, and I certainly must if Calthwaite is 
to descend to a further generation. One has duties in life.” 

“ Oh, of course,” she returned. “ Mother, won’t you try 
some of those early strawberries?” 

“Yes, dear, certainly, and give Arthur some. But, my dear 
boy, do tell me — this is most interesting. Of course she is 
pretty?” 

Mrs. Calthwaite knew all about her son’s serious ventures in 
the matrimonial market, and every girl who refused her jewel 
sank low, very low, in her estimation. Poor Lady Margaret ! 
if she had only known what Mrs. Calthwaite wrote in her 
diary regarding her, and poor Mrs. Calthwaite, if she had only 
overheard what Lady Margaret said about her dear son, in 
strictest confidence, to her pet cousin the Hon. Madeline 
Beaufort ! 

“ Pretty, of course, mother ! She must be pretty to match 
my mother,” and he bowed to her over his wineglass. 

“ Nonsense, Arthur ! ” yet she bridled and bloomed young 
again amidst her rich satin and old point lace. 

“I suppose it is the Scarth heiress you are discussing,” 
put in Gertrude sharply. “ I wondered how many days you 
would be able to keep away from her.” 

“ Right, madam, Eleanor Carradus is the child. The charm 
of the personality quite overbalances the incumbrances of the 
fortune ! ” 

“ Oh, of course ; cela va / ” she returned. 

“ Well, dear Gertrude,” put in Mrs. Calthwaite, with alacrity, 
“ we can call, of course. There is nothing to prevent that I 
know of. Let me see, this is Tuesday. Wednesday — no, that 
is the village cycle parade. Thursday — no, that’s the usual 
tennis. Friday — yes, Friday, it will have to be Friday. I 
must not forget.” 

“Would you suggest our taking a bouquet with us, Arthur?” 
asked his sister. “ Anything to oblige, you know.” 

“ If you like,” he returned still very pleasantly. “ But I’ll 
tell you what, madam, you might ask her to the tennis 


T BACCA QUEEN 227 

Thursdays. They could get her out here somehow. Perhaps 
the Vicaress would bring her.” 

“Or Mr. Ryder Glyn,” she suggested. “We want a few 
more men.” 

“ Or Ryder Glyn,” he returned in a matter-of-fact voice. 
“ He promised me the other day to come out more regularly. 
His piety actually allows him to play tennis ! ” 

“Well, mother, are you ready? ” and Gertrude rose. 

“Shall you be coming in, Arthur?” asked his mother, 
wistfully. 

“Thanks, mother, no; I prefer a smoke. 

So mother and daughter returned to their solitude and the 
son went to the apartment on which his mother had expended 
every device she could think of, which might tend to the comfort 
and enervating luxury of her boy. 

Comfortably settled in a great lounge chair, he betook 
himself with diligence to his pipe, and to the task of drawing 
profiles and full-length sketches of the faces that were at the 
moment impressed on his brain. 

And for one he drew of the piquant Eleanor, there was a 
dozen of the ’Bacca Queen. 

Nell in the street. Nell seated on the mossy bank. Nell 
patting her hand out as she listened for that “Nell, Nell,” 
which she never answered. Nell as she taunted him over her 
shoulder. Nell as she glared at him in that fierce burst of 
indignation. Nell as she passed away down the shaded foot- 
path out of his sight. 

On and on he drew far into the night, adding touch after 
touch to satisfy his remembrance. And then as the clock 
struck two he gathered together all the Eleanors and Nells 
into one packet, and locked them up in his desk before going 
out for a last breath of air. 

When Friday came, Mrs. Calthwaite and her daughter duly 
called at The Abbey and Mary received them with all 
politeness. 

Mrs. Calthwaite was generally a little shy when first meeting 
an acquaintance, but Mary soon set her at her ease and helped 


228 


T BACCA QUEEN 


her with her quick, nervous sentences, for the shyer Mrs. 
Calthwaite was, the faster she talked. 

Mary rather liked Miss Calthwaite. She was always 
interested in dull people, having a curious desire to probe 
the dulness, to find the living, burning, quivering reality 
beneath. 

Sometimes she succeeded in her research, but sometimes 
she failed altogether, for the simple reason that there are souls 
who really seem to be all surface — even, pleasant, irreproach- 
able surface it may be — but more generally dull, dreary, desert 
surface, on which neither storm, glaring sunshine, nor stifling 
heat take any effect. It remains desert still. 

But Miss Calthwaite’s dulness was hardly of either of these 
kinds. Beneath the surface of her life lay precious metal, 
awaiting either the hand of the seeker or a volcanic rupture, 
to bring it to view. 

Eleanor showed off well. She was always particularly sweet 
to elderly ladies, and Mrs. Calthwaite was charmed with her 
freshness and simplicity. She moved about and talked with 
a new brightness and a subdued excitement to which Mary 
greatly feared she had received the key a few days before. 

However, there is nothing like strict conventionality for 
helping awkward situations, and though Mary could not 
endure the son, it was impossible to be otherwise than 
pleasant and civil to his mother and sister. 

When the callers left Eleanor slipped away for a ramble up 
on to the Castle Hill, a spot to which she had already intro- 
duced herself, and soon afterwards the door opened and 
Catherine came cautiously in. 

“ Ah, Mary — alone ! What a blessing ! Where is the 
infant?” 

“Off for a ramble. Now have you come in for a nice 
gossip? I am dying to talk to you. Ring for some fresh 
tea. Now do, dear ! ” 

“ Oh no, I can’t stay.” Catherine invariably said she could 
not stay before an hour’s visitation, and the least question or 
movement on the part of Mary would set her on the move. 


T BACCA QUEEN 229 

Even the entrance of the harmless Jacobs would suggest to 
her leavetaking and she would rise like a butterfly from a 
petal. So Mary, desiring her presence, dropped the subject of 
fresh tea and endured seeing her sister-in-law partake of the 
cool, limp beverage. 

“ This will do perfectly, I’ve had two teas already this after- 
noon, and I only want a single cup, I’m expecting Harry any 
moment. I told him to come and fetch me.” 

Catherine came up to the low table to pour out for herself. 
“ Whom have you had ? ” she remarked, as she noticed the 
empty cups and the disarranged chairs. 

“ Only Mrs. and Miss Calth waite.” 

“ Ah, then I suppose you were right and the ‘ Duke * is 
nibbling ? ” 

The Duke happened to be the name given locally to 
Calthwaite, in compliment no doubt to his graceful manners 
and lordly attitude towards his Farbiggin acquaintances. 

Mary smiled and shook her head. 

“ Oh, come, Mary, you said you wanted to talk a little gossip, 
there is nothing like a little right down good gossip for cheering 
one up. Besides, I came to make you tell me how you are really 
getting on, I never can catch you alone now ! ” 

Mary loved a chat with her sister-in-law. Catherine was 
very erratic in her visitations ; sometimes she dropped in daily 
for a week, at others she never came near for a month or so ; 
she meant no offence, and Mary had quite ceased taking any. 
But when she did come, there was no one to whom Mary 
would rather unburden her mind of a good many little matters 
that oppressed her. 

• “ Well, I am getting on very well indeed. Far better than 
I expected. She really is a charming girl. No, Catherine, 
you need not make that face, she really is quite charming and 
most affectionate, and as far as I can see simple and un- 
affected.” 

“ Oh, well, all I can say is ‘ Beware ! ’ I noticed her after 
you had left on Tuesday, and I must confess I came to the 
conclusion that she was a barefaced little flirt ! ” 


230 


T BACCA QUEEN 

But Mary was sturdily truthful and loyal and would not 
allow Catherine to insinuate evil unchecked. 

“ No, honestly, I somehow think you are wrong. Of course 
I can’t say, but I do know that I loathe Arthur Calthwaite. I 
do really. It may be shocking, but the fact remains ! ” 

“ Well, mark my words, she was taken with him. Not that 
I know much about these things.” 

“ You ! And you have been flirting with the same man 
ever since you were eighteen ! ” 

“ Well, but Mary, now suppose that he really came forward 
as a suitor, would you object ? Do let us do a little match- 
making. I am yearning to get some practice before Maud starts 
these vagaries.” 

“ That would be father’s affair, I suppose. I only hope 
nothing will come to a head before she is one-and-twenty, and 
then she can do exactly as she likes.” 

“ What delicious cake ! What is it ? ” 

“ Only some German Kuchen that Eleanor persuaded me 
to let her make. All the domestics are in love with her. She 
wanders about entirely at her ease and makes friends with 
every man, woman and boy and animal about the place. Even 
our small groom is her devoted slave and is coming out quite 
wonderfully under her influence, and as for Vixen she has gone 
over to her body and soul, or ears and tail if you prefer it. 
Look, there they are ! ” and from the window they could just 
see the slight figure in white climbing up the steep hillside, and 
the collie bounding along in front. 

“ Dear me ! ” remarked Catherine, taking a second piece oi 
Kuchen, “ then what about Ryder ? ” 

“ My dear Catherine, don’t ! ” 

“All right then, I won’t ! Ask me no questions and I’ll— 
we know the rest of the saying.” 

“ There’s only one thing, Catherine, I know you always go to 
those Tennis Thursdays at Calthwaite. I wonder if you would 
mind escorting Eleanor ? You would be an angel ! They 
were so very pressing this afternoon.” 

“ Ah ! the plot thickens ! It’s all very well for you to 


T BACCA QUEEN 231 

throw her on to me ! How am I to look after her, please ? 
Why, I don’t suppose she can play tennis either. Bad players 
are at a discount. Calth waite takes good care not to allow the 
second rates to get much of a chance. I often wonder they 
come.” 

“ She seems to have had some practice, but I imagine she 
plays a poor game. I made Ryder give her a lesson yesterday, 
and I heard great chatterings going on, and when she came in 
she told me she was simply “ frantically bad.” 

“ There, you see ! And how am I to look after her amongst 
all that tribe of ne’er-do-weels that loaf round at Calthwaite on 
a Tennis Thursday ? ” 

“ Catherine ! ” 

“ Oh, I know that the men are not quite all rubbish — happily 
for Farbiggin not quite all ! But the main of them are fools 
— back-boneless fools, waiting for something to turn up either 
in their worldly affairs or their brains ! Do you know, Mary, I 
feel inclined to go on the ramp when I consider the average, 
nowadays, young man ! 

“You even mock at Ryder I have noticed.” 

“ Of course I do, but that is only for his good ! But I don’t 
mean boys like Ryder. Why, he is head and shoulders above 
these cubs that meditate on themselves and their cigars at the 
club — these men who discuss the girls and talk mannish (I 
won’t say womanish) gossip, and lie in bed in the morning as 
some of those young doctors do, and struggle through two 
hours’ work in a day at their sleepy offices and banks, or 
pottering round their estates. Oh, I should dearly love to fire 
some of them out 1 ” 

“Where?” 

“ Oh, anywhere, I don’t mind. Somewhere where there 
were no cigars at any rate. What makes me so mad is that 
they seem actually proud of their ignorance and imbecility ! 
In fact they consider downright gross ignorance as a sign of 
culture.” 

“ Go on, Catherine, I love to hear you rage,” and Mary 
leant back with enjoyment written on her face. 


232 T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Oh, I can go on any amount. I know I’m woefully 
ignorant. No one could live with Harry and not know that, 
but I hope I don’t pride myself thereon ! ” 

“ I rather agree, but do you know I sometimes feel so sorry 
about it. I hate to think of young manhood sinking down to 
the contemplation of cigars, gossip, whisky and soda, or even 
games ! ” 

“I’m not a scrap sorry. They all want a right down good 
shaking. What have they grown up for but to take the 
world’s burden upon them ? That is, if they are grown up, 
which I sometimes seriously doubt. Some men are nothing 
but great babies — weak, fractious babies.” 

“ If they were only babies and nothing worse, one would 
not be so fearful, but seriously, Catherine, I think you might 
be a little kinder to Teddie. You are rather too snubbing. 
Do you know, I believe you hurt him sometimes ! ” 

“ Do I, poor darling boy ! Well, I’ll make an enormous 
fuss over his next project, if you can warn me what it is going 
to be. Ryder is such a queer boy ; he is so awfully in 
earnest and looks so solemn and deduces such soul-appalling 
theories that he makes me laugh. I can’t help it, it must be 
as Topsy says : ‘ ’Cos I’se so wicked ’ ; my mind riots with 
merriment when he gets on to one of his gee-gees ! ” 

“ Catherine in full swing ! ” said the Vicar quietly as he 
entered the room. “How are you, Mary?” 

“ Enjoying your wife. She is a delightful woman, Henry ! ” 

“ She is ! I’ve thought the same for a long time.” 

“Don’t be silly, Harry. Now what do you think is the 
latest ? ” 

“ No conception.” 

“Well, Mary here wants me to undertake Eleanor — to 
chaperone her to Calthwaite — and no one knows where else 
besides.” 

“ I see that you are bursting with pride at your office, dear.” 

“ Harry ! Oh, well, I shall have to stop playing tennis now. 
That is what it means. I always knew a time would come 
when age would set me free, and now the time has come. I 


V BACCA QUEEN 233 

can’t have the face to stand up in a tennis court, if I am 
taking a girl of twenty about.” 

“ I don’t know what the players will say when they have to 
make up for the next matches. I am sure you look as young 
as any of them.” 

“ Now, Harry, you will soon be making me look positively 
ridiculous if you go on with that age delusion of yours. It 
will have to vanish at last.” 

“ Suppose you go on playing tennis and I do the 
chaperoning ? ” 

“Oh, I daresay. No, Mary, I will not let you through. I 
will stick to my post, and play the old woman at last. Come 
along, Harry.” 

“Oh, can’t you stay ? I never see Henry ! ” 

“ No, really we can’t ! This is the very last moment. The 
Vicarage will be in an uproar as it is. Do come, Harry ! What 
a dawdle you are ! ” and she dragged him away. 

As the discordant bells rang out for six o’clock to the tune 
of “ Home, Sweet Home,” a lovely picture might have been 
seen up in the Castle yard. But there was no one to see it — 
none but the twittering birds and the cawing rooks and the 
merry little gnats that danced their summer dance in their own 
misty clouds. It was only a girl in white seated on a fallen 
block of old-century masonry, with a sable collie at her 
feet. The simple straw hat was lying on her knee, and the 
only colouring in the picture was the grey stone, the green, 
grassy background, the golden hair, and the sable collie with 
her nose resting on her companion’s lap 

Eleanor was taking her fill of the old Castle. She had 
climbed the hill, and watched the evening shadows moving 
majestically over the wild distances. She had gazed far to 
the south, if perchance she might catch a glimpse of the 
shining sea, and straight in front of her she had amused 
herself with tracing out the streets and roads and river- 
windings beneath, and up the opposite hillside, the grey mass 
of the Scarth, the stony fell lands which stretched mile on 
mile above the thin drifting smoke of the town. She felt a 
16 


2 34 


T BACCA QUEEN 

feeling of Germany as she admired the June foliage of the 
great trees which clung round the walls of the old ruin, leaving 
their roots exposed in serpentine tracery on the earthy bank, 
and she delighted in the ancient moat in which there were now 
only a few grassy pools of water, telling of a time of past 
warfare and victory. 

Eleanor only thought of victory in the life before her. She 
was very happy. Life was far pleasanter than she had 
imagined. People were nicer than she had expected. How 
clear the sky was between the great massy clouds, how strong 
and free the air, how refreshing the evening atmosphere ! 

“You dear, darling Vixen 1” she said, stooping down, and 
taking the dog’s face between her hands and looking down 
into the soft, brown eyes. “ Dear Vixen ! you and I will tell 
each other secrets some times, shall we? But I have no 
secret to-night. Nothing at all to tell you! Come, my 
sweet ! ” 

Vixen moved the tip of her long, bushy tail sympatheti- 
cally, and then Eleanor rose, and the dog bounded forward 
dancing along in front of her, back to The Abbey. 


CHAPTER XXVI 

At this time life seemed determined to shower down upon 
Eleanor in hearty profusion those things which are generally 
supposed to bring true happiness. She was certainly happy — 
happy in the sense that old unhappinesses slumbered and new 
ones had not arisen to cloud the horizon. 

She had a pleasant home and ample allowance, peaceful 
hours for reading, time for the beloved music. She drove 
with Mary, and paid calls with Catherine, and chattered to 
Mary in her free, musical German when they were alone. She 
made friends easily, and having received nothing but kindness 
all her life in Germany, she took kindly feeling for granted, 
and brought a breath of wholesome naivete into the social 
life of the old town. 


2 35 


V BACCA QUEEN 

Of course she was discussed in every detail, but she was in 
the main unconscious of the discussion ; and Mary was not 
the one to introduce her to all the petty absurdities of Far- 
biggin social politics. 

It was true that a new excitement had entered into her life, 
whether deeper than excitement it would be hard to say, but 
certainly when shopping or driving or riding she could not 
keep herself from looking expectantly for a certain interesting 
form. 

Were she rewarded with the vision she desired — with a 
smile or a polite bow — she returned home satisfied ; and she 
would confide to Vixen the important fact that she had had 
an adventure. If she were not so rewarded, then Vixen 
received a tender caress, and her alert ears would hear a 
laughing whisper, “ No adventures to-day, dear, darling Vixen. 
Never mind, we don’t care, do we ? ” 

Eleanor took Ryder as a matter of course, and as part of 
the establishment. 

She was very soon installed as coffee-maker at the breakfast- 
table, and she quickly learnt to wait on Mr. Glyn with a certain 
pretty, deferential courtesy, and gradually the habit grew of 
taking him round the garden and seeing him off for his early 
morning ride, which he always took in good weather before 
going to his office. 

Ryder began to look forward to the breakfast hour. He 
could not remember the time since his schoolroom days when 
a woman had served his morning coffee. He had seriously 
grudged turning the meal into one for conventional chitchat, 
for he and his father had usually eaten silently, each absorbed 
in his respective newspaper. 

But as the days passed, Ryder found himself enjoying 
the quick, effective movements, the dainty ways of the girl ; 
and while Mr. Glyn still read his paper, Ryder gradually 
dropped his polite nothings, and broke out on all manner 
of topics in which lie was interested. And Eleanor followed 
the arguments with a serious face, and whilst putting in 
quaint and entirely original questions, and extremely un- 


236 T BACCA QUEEN 

answerable objections, showed woeful ignorance and very 
shrewd intuition. 

And he, forgetting to entertain, entertained right wondrously, 
and filled Eleanor’s mind with so many new ideas and fresh 
interests that had she been of an introspective nature she 
would hardly have credited the difference which this new 
intercourse was introducing into her outlook in life. 

It was evident, that if Eleanor were to take her place 
properly amongst the athletically inclined Moorshire young 
people, she must be able to play tennis. 

It was quite evident also, that the little practice she had had 
at Weimar, was worthless; but by dint of energetic hard 
work at the Vicarage, and singles with Ryder, she improved 
rapidly. 

When the question of going to Calthwaite was discussed, 
Eleanor objected to going until, as she expressed it, she could 
get a ball over the net decently. 

When Ryder had offered to teach her she acquiesced 
eagerly, and he, taking the matter in hand seriously, not 
only instructed, but insisted that his instructions should be 
carried out. 

“You know, Miss Carradus,” he said earnestly one bright 
afternoon, “it is not the least use my telling you not to do 
certain things if you will go on doing them the moment after 
I have spoken ! ” 

But Eleanor only laughed merrily ; and when he insisted 
still further she pouted ; and when he, quite unconscious that 
he was giving offence, made some further suggestion, she grew 
tired of the business, and, throwing her racket down on the 
ground, refused to go on. 

Ryder looked at her with astonished wonder written large 
on his face, and there was an awkward pause. 

Eleanor stood looking at him across the net. She had 
thrown her hat aside long before, and now her racket lay in 
disgrace on the ground. 

“ Oh, if you are tired, Miss Carradus ! I am sorry I 
did not know ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 237 

“ Oh, I’m not tired ! I am just mad. I don’t know if it is 
with myself or the ball, or with you, or what I ” 

“ Well, let us stop, then ! ” and he walked forward. 

Eleanor still stood in the back court, flushed and irritated. 
She watched him let down the net, and come slowly towards 
the tell-tale racket 

“ No ! you shan’t pick it up ! ” and she sprang forward. 
“ I’m a pig ! I always was, you know — never mind ; but some- 
how I feel to you as I used to feel sometimes to my old music 
professor. I could have killed him ! ” 

Ryder could not help smiling. “ I’m awfully sorry, Miss 
Carradus. Could you do anything to me now that would 
be a relief to you?” 

“Nothing, I am afraid. No, there’s nothing to do; 
nothing but to bear with me. I shall come round in time. 
Katchen always used to leave me on these occasions. Oh, 
of course, you don’t know Katchen.” 

“ No, I’m sorry. Was she a wise person?” 

“Now you are laughing at me — yes, you are — and it’s a 
shame, for you can’t imagine how annoying it is to feel you 
are doing a thing wretchedly and stupidly ! ” 

“ Don’t I ? I am afraid you hardly know me very well 
yet.” 

“Well, you don’t look as if you could lose your self- 
possession. You have such a supremely steady-going kind 
of appearance.” 

Ryder laughed. “ Well, ask Mary some time, and she 
will tell you home truths, and meanwhile you might as well 
sit down ; ” and he led the way to a couple of lounge 
chairs under an overspreading copper beech-tree. 

Eleanor placed herself comfortably, and began fanning her 
hot face with her hat. 

“ Why don’t you smoke, Mr. Ryder ? ” 

“ I never do.” 

“ I know that. But why ? ” 

“ Well, you see, I am about among so many young boys, 
and I see young fellows ruining their brains and their prospects 


238 V BACCA QUEEN 

in life through smoking, so I don’t feel it worth while for 
them to see me do it. Besides, I have my own brains to 
consider.” 

“ I see. Well, I know heaps of awfully nice people that 
smoke.” 

“ Oh, so do I.” 

“ And people with brains too.” 

“Yes, I know.” 

“ Then I think you are ridiculous.” 

“Do you?” and Ryder’s mouth had great difficulty in 
keeping its gravity. “ I’m sorry.” 

“ Do you honestly think that I shall ever play tennis — 
decently, I mean?” 

“Yes, I think you will. You were coming on nicely at 
first, I thought, this afternoon.” 

“ I wasn’t.” 

“You have some nice strokes and you have a good style 
and judgment, but you are too impetuous ; you run too much 
at the ball, and you don’t work your wrist enough. But I 
have seen lots of girls worse than you, and you exert yourself 
and run about, and that is a great thing.” 

“ I didn’t exert myself much to-day.” 

“No, I noticed that. I am afraid I am rather a stupid 
teacher.” 

“Oh no, you are all right ; but I hate to learn — that is all. 
You destroy my self-complaisancy.” 

They were interrupted by the appearance of Johnson, who 
came up and touched his hat. 

“ Mr. Ryder, sir, the horse is come, sir. I’ve told the 
master, sir, and he says as perhaps Miss Carradus would 
like to see him, sir.” 

Eleanor leaped to her feet. 

“ My horse ! Oh, how lovely ! I didn’t know he was 
coming this afternoon ! ” And she left her companion 
without ceremony and hurried off down the path into the 
stableyard. 

Mr. Glyn was already there looking, with the eye of an 


T BACCA QUEEN 239 

expert, at the beautiful animal which a stranger groom was 
holding. 

“ Come along, Miss Carradus. Here he is, ready to carry 
you ‘ over the hills and far away ’ any time ! ” and Mr. Glyn 
stooped to stroke down the glossy forelegs. 

Eleanor came up, and put out her hand and pulled the 
mane through her fingers. 

“ Oh, what a beauty ! Oh, I don’t know what he is ! ” 

“Quite guaranteed for a lady, miss,” said Johnson admir- 
ingly. “ Mr. Ryder, sir, try him, and let the young lady see 
his paces.” 

There was quite a little crowd assembled to see the new 
excitement. Gardeners from the glasshouses near, servants 
standing at the kitchen door, and even the solemn Jacobs 
could be soon looking over the courtyard from his pantry 
window. 

Ryder gathered the reins together, leapt easily into the 
saddle, and trotted off down the drive and into the paddock. 

“ He’s lovely — lovely ! ” cried Eleanor. “ Oh, Mr. Glyn, do 
you really mean that I am to ride him ? Really and truly ? ” 

Mr. Glyn looked at the girl and smiled in a fatherly 
manner. “ Yes, dear child, really and truly. We must make 
you into the best horsewoman in Moorshire. Well, what’s 
the report, Ryder?” as his son presently returned. 

“First class, father; you could not have done better, so far 
as I am a judge ; easy paces, and a delightful mouth.” 

“ A hundred golden guineas, Miss Carradus ! I hope you 
do not think that shocking ! ” said her guardian ; “ but I don’t 
believe in second-class horseflesh.” And Mr. Glyn looked at 
the new purchase with positive affection. 

“ I am afraid I don’t know anything at all about it, Mr. 
Glyn. I think he is altogether perfect, and if you think it is 
all right, of course it is all right.” 

“ Well, you will have to begin your riding lessons at once. 
Johnson here will put you into the way of things, and my son 
Ryder will be glad to help, I am sure.” 

“ I am afraid I am useless as a teacher, father ; ” and Ryder 


240 


T BACCA QUEEN 

looked down at Eleanor quizzically. “ I have a knack of 
making my instructions offensive in some way.” 

But Eleanor’s testiness had fled away at sight of the new 
treasure, for her tantrums were very short-lived, so she was 
quite able to remark to her guardian : “ Mr. Ryder and I 
have been quarrelling over tennis, but I hope I should behave 
better on horseback. The fear of falling off will perhaps keep 
me in order.” 

“ I think that Johnson should be the regular morning 
coach, and that you, Ryder, had better be the examiner or 
head-master when you are at liberty, and there is no doubt 
that I shall put in a word myself ; so, Miss Eleanor, you will 
have no chance of getting into bad habits.” 

Ryder laughed. “Of course I shall be delighted to give 
all the coaching I possibly can.” 

“ And of course I shall be awfully, awfully good, sir ! ” and 
Eleanor made him a little mocking courtesy. 

Eleanor soon learnt to ride. Any bliss she had experienced 
heretofore sank into nothingness before this new rapture. 

She could have lived in the saddle. She even dreamed of 
riding at night, and Ryder had nothing to complain of in the 
way in which she obeyed his slighest direction. Her pride 
was immense when Mr. Glyn himself suggested that she 
should join him in his early rides. 

After that, many and many a breakfast-time Eleanor 
appeared in her well-cut habit, and it seemed as though, 
charming as she looked in her laces and summer flummeries, 
she looked even more lovely in collar, shirt, and dark-green 
habit cloth. 

Mary now and then came to her window, and looked down 
at her father and guest as they rode off on the sweet summer 
mornings, and a sigh would escape from that patient heart, 
and a tear would struggle up into those brave, loving eyes. 

It was some years ago since Mary’s old “ Prince Rupert ” 
had been shot, and many more since she and he together, had 
laughed at the mile stones, and met the wind in full career on 
the wide, open fells. 


241 


T BACCA QUEEN 

The parting with the old horse was one of the things that 
Mary could never quite bear to remember. He had been so 
connected with the life of long ago. He was gone, and she 
was left. So as guardian and ward rode off Mary would slip 
back to her morning rest, and the old tragedy of “ Never 
Again ” would fill her throat and quiver her nerves, and not 
all her self-consoling arguments could quite remove the pain. 

Eleanor at last decided that she played tennis sufficiently 
well to make a modest appearance at the Calthwaite Tennis 
Thursdays, and started off in high spirits with Catherine. 
Catherine tried to keep an eye upon her, but she was in 
great request for tennis, and was dragged off to a hot double 
just when she saw Calthwaite standing at ease near Eleanor, 
with the evident intention of asking her to take a stroll ; for 
it was quite one of the things to do at Calthwaite, to walk the 
grounds and admire the glass houses, which were the most 
wonderful in the county except for Sir William Temple’s. 

When Catherine looked round after her first service they 
had disappeared. And the very next day Catherine came to 
relieve her mind to Mary. 

“Of course, Mary, I don’t know if anything happened. 
His attentions were certainly pointed, but they all worried me 
so awfully to play that ” 

“ That you played ! ” 

“Yes, I played. I know I’m a hopeless chaperone.” 

“ Was there a good muster ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, there were heaps and heaps — a regular turn-out. 
I wonder how Mrs. Calthwaite manages week after week, but 
the Duke, I imagine, likes her to keep up the hospitalities. 
It is part of their position, you know ! Sir Matthew Preston 
was there and his wife and a tribe of sickly-looking children. 
Now that man is another I can’t stand ! ” 

“ Catherine ! ” 

“ Mary ! You can’t stand him yourself, for all he is quite 
the handsomest man in Moorshire. Oh, I know one can’t 
deny that ! ” 

“ I suppose you had rain ? ” 


2\2 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“Just a shower, and we all rushed indoors. That child of 
yours played marvellously. She will make Moorshire musical 
experts who think the knowledge of music lives and dies 
with themselves * sit up/ to use one of Rob’s expressions. 
You should have seen Eleanor’s face when some of the 
people were performing. Miss Le Fevre, for instance, with 
that piece of Grieg that she plays every time she sits at 
the piano as far as I have ever discovered. Eleanor set her 
face very solemnly, but you could see that the expression was 
quite artificial, and when she looked up to join in the ‘ Thank 
you ’ the smile broke out from her mouth. Oh, I saw it, the 
little hypocrite ! ” 

“ I suppose you thanked, Catherine ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, but I never smiled ! ” 

And meanwhile the little “ hypocrite ” was letting off her 
surplus energies in a long epistle to Katchen, whom she felt 
she had been somewhat neglecting. 

“The Abbey, Farbiggin. 

“Ju/y. 

“ Dearest Child, — Oh, dear ! where shall I begin. I 
want to tell you everything, and that is quite impossible 
Well, first of all, how are you all and the beloved Weimar? 
People are, I suppose, getting hotter and hotter and crosser 
and crosser ; fingers sliding helplessly on the wet piano keys, 
and ices sliding deliciously down throats. I am progressing 
wonderfully, and there always seems to be a good deal 
going on. 

“ I wrote you all about the Whitsuntide outing ; well, now 
I want to describe a regular Moorshire tennis party. Of 
course I can’t tell you it properly, but you may gather some 
facts and a few ideas after you have laboured through these 
pages. 

“ The party was at a place called Cal th waite. Cal th waite 
is quite the ugliest house I have seen for some time. It is 
built of square cut stone blocks, in shape as plain and square 
and flat as you can imagine. No gables, not a vestige of an 


243 


V BACCA QUEEN 

outstanding window, and the grey-blue slate roof is as dull 
and shallow as those we used to draw in the Schule when no 
one but our next-door neighbour was looking It seemed as 
if all the cost of the ornament had been put into the cutting 
of those limestone blocks and the great, staring, high plate- 
glass windows. 

“ However, the inside is most luxurious ; really the place is 
quite filled with carpets and curtains, mats and pictures, 
tables and vases, and the air was thick with scent of flowers, 
quite overpowering. A shower of rain came on while we 
were there, so everybody wandered about indoors, and Mr. 
Calthwaite showed me his own room. I call it shocking for 
a man to have such a boudoir, but it was very jolly all the 
same. He had heaps of sketches about, but nothing seemed 
quite finished. And this is very private : he showed me one 
he had done of me at Ottarthwaite. Oh ! and wonder of 
wonders, they had quite a decent piano (oh, the pianos I have 
laboured on since I came here !), and while every one crowded 
in from the rain they made me play, and I felt quite pro- 
fessional. It was rather a comfort to show them that I could 
do something, for I had just made a dreadful exhibition of 
myself at tennis. If my partner, Mr. Calthwaite, had not had 
the temper of an angel he would have thrown up the game. 

“ Talking of tennis, Mrs. Glyn, the Vicar’s wife, plays mar- 
vellously. It would amuse you to see her husband, the grave, 
quiet Vicar, watching her every stroke with adoring admira- 
tion. She is quite the best lady player, and they all want her 
continuously, and so I really saw very little of her, though she 
was supposed to be taking care of me ! 

“ Oh, yes, and Katchen, darling, I saw the handsomest man 
I think I have ever seen — no, don’t think things, my dear, he 
is married and has a wife and lots of children, who trailed 
behind their mother all the afternoon. Sir Matthew Preston 
is very tall, dark, with wavy black hair, not a sign of grey that 
I could see, and large dark eyes ; but what struck me most 
was his straightness and his pose. He kept looking at me, and 
I believe I know why, and I am certain he asked some one 


244 


T BACCA QUEEN 


who I was. I hope he was edified with what he heard. I 
don’t suppose I really ought to tell you, but I hate Sir 
Matthew Preston. I can just guess why my darling mother 
would never marry him, and though you know I don’t pretend 
to adore my Whinery grandparents, still it hurts me somehow 
to think that this man helped on the ruin. Do you know 
while I was sitting on a low seat watching Catherine playing 
I heard some one the other side of the tree saying, with a 
mocking kind of laugh, ‘ There goes Sir Matthew ; a jolly 
thing he made out of the Whinery affairs by all accounts.* 
Wasn’t that disgusting? 

“ I had quite a nice talk with Miss Calthwaite. She is the 
only daughter, and can’t be said to be afflicted with good 
looks, but she amused me rather. She made such quaint 
remarks about the people. 

“You should see some of the athletic girls and the untidy, 
tennisy men ! They play as if they were boys and girls at 
school — quite old ones too. 

“ But where was I ? Oh ! Miss Calthwaite. Well, she tells 
me that every spring they have a Musical Festival, and she is 
sure that I ought to be made use of and train a choir or 
conduct a village orchestra or something. It would be fun, 
of course, but we shall see. Apparently there is difficulty in 
finding conductors. 

“ As for piano playing in Moorshire, I suppose I heard the 
best amateurs they have in the district, and it really was 
appalling. A girl played one of the simpler Chopin waltzes 
with the trills and dear little baby runs left out ; and another 
played a frantic Grieg — played it like an electric barrel organ, 
and with just about as much soul ; and another rather solemn- 
faced lady sat down to a delightful Chopin etude with a look 
on her face as much as to say, £ Now, you frivolous people, 
prepare for solemnification.’ Whereupon she played so slowly 
— oh, so awfully slowly, but without a scrap of tone — as if 
slowness of itself produced solemnity, until all impressiveness 
was lost between the notes. I seemed to feel dear Herr 
Professor in the room and to hear him in his panting ejacula- 


245 


T BACCA QUEEN 

tion, * Falsche sentimentalitat ! Himmel ! she plays like an 
exhausted elephant ! ’ Well, never mind, I only trust I shan’t 
get conceited, for they evidently think I am quite a marvel ! 
I was treated with the most deferential consideration. Fancy, 
poor little me 1 

“ And oh, Katchen, I have got a horse, and I am crazy — 
crazy ! I have called him Graf, and we go for lovely rides. 
By we I mean my guardian, and sometimes the son. But the 
son is often busy. He, being the junior partner, has, I 
suppose, most of the work to do. 

“ That boy is improving. I don’t think that at the bottom 
he is quite so conceited as I thought. He is very kind and 
good-natured, and does not mind what trouble he takes when 
he remembers; but he is absurdly absent-minded, and so 
frantically in earnest. However, we don’t quarrel quite as 
much as I expected we should. I have a flare-out now and 
again. You see I don’t choose to flare-out with Miss Glyn, 
and I dare not with Mr. Glyn, so he is my only outlet for a 
refreshing little row. 

“Now goodbye, my dearest, with love — love — love to you 
and dear Frau von Hervart, and kindest remembrances to 
your honoured father. Ever yours, 

“ Helenchen.” 

To this letter Katchen wasted the foreign postage on the 
following reply : — 

“ Liebes Helenchen, — 

“ Aber wie alt ist dieser Herr Calth waite ? 

“ Katchen.” 


CHAPTER XXVII 

“ Eh, Nell, I is tired ! ” and Sarah Jameson pushed her arm 
into Nell’s as they walked up the street. 

Both girls looked hot and fagged- Whilst Eleanor was 
playing tennis, or riding in the cool summer mornings, or 


T BACCA QUEEN 


246 

resting indoors during the heat, or listening to the cool splash 
of the waves on the North Wales coast, the factory workers 
were still pursuing their dull round. Hour after hour the 
girls toiled ; well or ill they stood for ten long hours every day, 
growing, as the summer advanced, white, anaemic, and listless. 
Even in the tobacco shops, where spirits were high and jokes 
were, as a rule, plentiful, wit flagged, and the clock was watched 
with a wistful intensity. 

As July broke into August, family after family left the little 
town for the fresh sea breezes, the mountain heights, or the 
changeful Continent. The pulpits were short of preachers, 
the Sunday schools of teachers, and even the doctors had 
deserted and left young, inexperienced locums to depress the 
situation still further. But the early morning clatter of the 
clogs down the Scarth continued remorselessly, and the smell 
of the tobacco shop was as strong as ever, and the demand for 
cigars and cigarettes amongst the loungers in the refreshing 
holiday resorts continued unabated. 

So the girls worked steadily without enthusiasm, and satu- 
rated their hot, damp clothes and enervated lungs with the 
odour of the “fragrant weed,” whilst the dainty boxes of their 
produce were piled day by day into the huge cases, which 
were carried off to the station. 

So Sarah Jameson admitted that she was tired, but Nell 
admitted nothing ; she only expressed the opinion that “ 1” 
warld was turbel badly manished.” 

It was a specially breathless summer. The fell lands were 
burnt brown, and the fine limestone dust settled everywhere 
with a persistent whiteness. The river had dwindled to a 
mere trickle, in which the indefatigable youngsters floundered 
in broad daylight, and the police for once had not the heart to 
stop them. And whilst the river-bed threw the scent of its 
refuse back into the hot air, the sanitary inspector was away 
with his wife and family by the breezy coast. 

The Water Company with creditable economy withdrew the 
water supply for the greater part of the day, and up and down 
the town the unflushed drains and gutters, and piled up 


r BACCA QUEEN 247 

midden steads, sent out their evil smell through many a lane 
and alley, through many a kitchen and bedroom. 

And at night on the Scarth, the people at last remembered 
the repeated instructions of Dr. Maddison, and gasping for 
breath they made for the windows to let in the fresh air, but 
generally they found a casement a few inches square, the only 
medium through which they could let in even an apology for 
this necessary of life. 

Some of the windows had not even the tiny casement, but 
were hermetically sealed. Yet such is the tenacity with 
which the human kind holds its life, that even in such rooms 
the restless, half-stifled slumberers lived till morning. 

But the tide of health sank lower, and nerves and tempers 
mustered strength, and many a baby slept its last long sleep, 
and in Dicky, at any rate, life began to flicker very perceptibly. 

“ Eye ! I’se tired,” repeated Sarah. 

“ Well, thoo’s finished for to-day, any road ! ” Nell replied 
cheeringly. “ I wish thoo hed a lad, Sarah, and then thoo 
could gaa walking oot ; it would do tha good ! ” 

Sarah laughed in spite of herself. “ Naa, Nell, I’se leave t’ 
lads to thee. Which on em is it to-neet ? ” 

“ Dicky. Eh, Sally, yon lile lad, he fair meks ma creep ! ” 

“ Thoo’s aulus wi Dicky ; what does Jack Fleming say to 
tha’?” 

“ He can say anything he hes a mind ; let him tak oop wi 
thee, I’se thrang ! ” 

Sarah turned away, there was no such interest for her. 
Nell was a puzzle to Sarah. It seemed so odd that she 
should persistently despise a young man who was so steady, 
so “ religious,” just exactly the kind of man whom Sarah was 
waiting for herself. 

So Nell turned off home and freshened herself up, cheered 
the children and rated her mother, and then went out to see 
Dicky. He was in the little kitchen, a fire was burning hotly 
and cooking was progressing. Several neighbours were in the 
room keeping company with Mrs. Dixon, who was busy with 
the frying-pan, and her husband was seated in stocking feet' 


248 T BACCA QUEEN 

in the rocking-chair in the corner, between Dicky’s bed and 
the fire. 

The boy was lying by the window on an improvised bed, 
and his face lighted up with a brave, wan smile as Nell entered. 

“ Nell, darlin’ ! ” 

“ He’s turbel set on yon lass ! ” said his mother in a loud 
whisper to old Betsy, who had come in for a good sit. 

“ Well, Dicky ! ” 

A faint freshness seemed to come in with Nell, possibly due 
to the force of her bright young strength, or to the roses she 
carried in her hand. 

“ I’se tired, Nell ! ” 

“ Of course thoo is, my lad. Niver heed, smell them roses 
I’se fetched for tha ! ” The boy stretched out his feeble hand 
for the flowers. 

“ Look ! he’s joost skin and bone ! ” r^rfiarked his mother 
again in her loud undertone. 

The flies had found Dicky; all day and all night they settled 
upon him : on his forehead,, his cheeks, his mouth, his neck, 
and his slender hands and wrists. Fly papers, fly catchers, all 
resulted in failure, and when there was no one at leisure to 
brush them away, he had learnt to endure like a drummer-boy 
on a battlefield. Nell took out a spotless handkerchief. 

“ Watter, Mrs. Dixon ? ” 

“ Theer’s none in t’ tap, but I saved some in yon tub.” 

“ I’d like to shut some o’ them Water Company directors 
up on t’ Scarth for a week or two ! ” growled the man in the 
corner. “ Not a drop o’ clean watter, and some on em gettin’ 
oop teetotal meetin’s ! ” 

Dixon did not expect to be listened to, but he clenched his 
hand savagely, and again buried himself in his evening paper. 

Nell spread the cool wet cloth over the boy’s forehead, and 
the neighbours seated on high chairs round the room looked 
on. When Nell had straightened the bed and smoothed the 
cotton sheet and brushed Dicky’s hair (all the merry little 
curls now soft and limp with perspiration), she turned and 
looked round the room. 


T BACCA QUEEN 249 

“ There’s ouer many folk in this spot ! ” she said abruptly. 
Then, regardless of the scornful and indignant glances that 
went from one to the other, she continued : “ Mrs. Dixon, you 
should stick to t’ doctor’s orders. You’ve no call to hev sa 
many folk round. If we a’ hev to hev lile rooms we’ve no call 
to tek a’ t’ air as there is fra a lad what’s dyin’ ! You dursent 
hev hed a’ this lot here if t’ doctor hed a’ bin i’ Farbiggin ! ” 

A woman rose. “ Well, Nell Carradus, it’s time folk left 
when such as thee teks to lamin’ folk.” 

And in another moment old Betsy also rose indignant. 

“ Well I’se blessed ! — well I is fer sure ! Naa’, thoo’l nut stop 
ma, Mrs. Dixen. Good-neet. It’s a good job to lam when 
folk’ room is better nor folk’ company.” 

But a pale young woman sitting near the door plucked up 
courage to say, “ Naa happen she’s reet. She said joost t’ 
saam afore we buried oor lile Maggie.” 

Nell said nothing, but sat down on the chair and brushed 
away the flies industriously. The women rose one by one and 
left the room, and then a half-smile rose to her face. 

But Mrs. Dixon whispered, “ Eh, Nell Carradus, what a 
tongue thoo hes ! It ’ull be a’ ower t’ Scarth as I wadn’t be 
civil.” 

“ Let it be,” grumped her husband from his corner. 

“Niver heed, Mrs. Dixon,” said Nell cheerfully, for she had 
carried the point ; “ naabody ’ull blaam thee. Any road, we’se 
shot on ’em. Now, Dicky, we’se hev a good sing.” 

Dicky smiled, and pulled from off the window-ledge a worn 
Sunday-school hymn-book. 

“ He reads t’ hymns tull hissell a deal, doesn’t he, father ? ” 

The man nodded his head slowly, and looked into the fire. 

Clearly and softly Nell sang, subduing her rich voice to the 
size of the room, and the strength of the child. 

And Dicky lay quietly looking at her, and his eyes grew 
peaceful, and the anxious puckers round his mouth smoothed 
themselves away. 

“ Gaa on, Nell,” he said at the close of each hymn, and never 
had prima donna a sweeter encore. So Nell sang on and on, 
17 


250 


T BACCA QUEEN 

until gradually the eyes, grown unnaturally large with the 
shrinkage of the worn face, closed, and he slept. 

“T’ first sleep he’s getten to-day,” said his mother with a 
look of gratitude in her face. “ Eh, deary me, them flies ! ” 

So Nell came in night after night, and on Saturdays and 
Sundays through the August days, spending many an hour in 
that hot little room. 

On the Scarth it became known that when Nell Carradus 
was at Mrs. Dixon’s they had best keep away, and many a 
visitor before venturing across the threshold would look round 
the door with the query, “ Is she theer ? ” 

Sometimes Dicky talked, and sometimes he was strangely 
silent. 

Nell found herself becoming interested in Dicky’s state, not 
only for his poor wan little self, but because he was a represen* 
tative of that thing called Death — the prophet of the future 
existence. She found that Dicky absolutely took the future 
life for granted. He talked of heaven as if he knew his way 
up and down the golden streets. He told her what Jesus 
said to him, and what he said in reply. He seemed familiar 
and quite unabashed at the thought of angels, and looked for- 
ward to seeing John Carradus and other Scarth acquaintances 
with absolute faith. 

Nell would have died rather than cast a doubt into Dicky’s 
mind. She sang all the hymns he loved over and over again 
with loving patience, and imperceptibly she became herself 
influenced by the Divine presence which Dicky accepted as a 
matter of fact. 

“Jesus was here last night, Nell!” 

“Was He, my lad?” 

“ Eye, He was so ! He put His hand reet doon under my 
bones ! ” and Dicky moved feebly. 

Poor Dicky’s body was reduced to “bones” now, though 
thanks to Nell’s dogged, resolute care he was spared the agony 
of bed sores, the general accompaniment of long, serious illness 
on the Scarth. 

“And did He speak to tha ? ” asked Nell curiously. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


251 


“ Why eye ! I exed Him to tek ma quick. I telt Him I was 
thirsty, and wanted to drink of the Fountain of Life. Sing it, 
Nell ! ” 

And Nell sang the old refrain. 

“The Fountain of Life is flowing, 

Flowing, freely flowing, 

The Fountain of Life is flowing, 

Is flowing for you and for me.” 

“A sup, Nell.” 

Dicky was always thirsty now. He never could drink 
enough to satisfy his feverish throat. 

Nell raised the soda-and-milk to the dry lips. 

“Thank tha. Eye, Nell, and He telt me He was cornin’ for 
ma soon, and then I exed Him joost to let me bide while Miss 
Mary got back.” 

“ She’s cornin’ back t’ next week. They were saying so at t’ 
Sunday School.” 

“ Then thoo’ll fetch her. Be sure and fetch her. I wadn’t 
keep her a minute.” 

Nell did not imagine for a moment that Miss Glyn would be 
able to come, for she knew that she could not possibly ascend 
the steep roadway up to the cottage, but she could not bear to 
disappoint the child. 

“ And there’s Dr. Maddison, I wad like to hev sin him afore 
I set off.” 

Nell wished so, too. But the doctor was away in the north 
of Scotland enjoying a well-earned holiday on the golf links. 

As soon as Mary was known to be at The Abbey, Nell 
called, in response to Dicky’s urgent entreaty. 

It was Sunday afternoon, and Mary was alone. 

“ I came, Miss Mary, but it’s no good.” 

“ What is it, dear ? ” 

“Nobbut Dicky — he’s nearly finished, and he was wantin’ you 
to come and see him — I was forced to come. I dursn’t tell 
him as you couldn’t.” 

Mary was silent. 

“ You can’t Miss Mary — oh, I know you can’t — only — ” and 


252 V BACCA QUEEN 

Nell struggled to steady her voice — “ only, Miss Mary, t’ lile 
feller, he wanted you so bad.” 

Mary pressed her hand to her brow. She had one of her 
racking headaches upon her. 

“No, Nell. I can’t — I can’t indeed.” 

“ Oh, I know as you can’t ! But he hed summut he wanted 
to say to you, and besides, he wanted you to pray wi’ him. He 
niver exes me to pray. He knows weel enough I can’t. Them 
curates comes, but they can’t make no prayers neither. They 
nobbut read ’em out of a lile book, and that’s nowt.” 

Mary could not help smiling, and then she made Nell tell 
her all about the illness. 

“ Poor Dicky ! And we have all been away enjoying our- 
selves, and you have been so hard at work ! ” 

“Oh, work does me no hurt,” said Nell independently, 

“ but ” and she looked round the large, airy room. “ Nob- 

but it’s t’ lile ’uns as I bother ower. Eh, if I hed t’ Scarth 
houses as some one as I kna hes ! I’d hev t’ maist on ’em 
smashed oop — eh, I wad. T’ nasty filthy spots — and yon 
Wild Boar public, I’d set it o’ fire, and team it awn spirit 
ower it to help t’ blaze. It burns wi’ hell fire a’ready does 
yon spot.” 

“ I believe you are right, Nell,” and Mary sighed. “ You 
don’t know what it feels like to lie here so helplessly. You can 
help — help. You have been helping poor little Dicky all this 
time — you have been following Christ. ‘ Inasmuch as ye did 
it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it 
unto Me.’” 

“ I don’t follow Christ ! ” 

“ Don’t you, dear ? If Christ lived Himself on the Scarth 
(and Nazareth was probably a wickeder place than the Scarth) 
and if you found Him tired after He had been going about all 
day doing good, would you give Him a drink if He needed it ? 
Would you see to it that He had a soft pillow on which to rest 
His weary head ? Would you make up His fire clean and 
bright on a cold winter’s night, so that the Christ should find 
it warm and cheerful when He returned ? ” 


253 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ I would do all yon.” 

“And if some one had wronged you — insulted you — hurt 
your life with a great hurt, would you forgive as Christ 
forgave ? ” 

“No, no — oh no, niver ! ” 

Mary looked up startled at the vehemence of the reply, and 
then she sighed again. 

“ Well, dear Nell, ask Him for His love — His real love He 
gives so freely — 

*“To those who fall how kind Thou art ! 

How good to those who seek ! 

But what to those who find? Ah, this 
Nor tongue nor pen can show. 

The love of Jesus, what it is 
None but His loved ones know ! ’ ” 

Nell was silent. 

Then the door opened and Ryder entered the room. He 
was retiring as he saw Nell, but Mary called him forward. 

“ I wonder whether you would mind going on to see Dicky 
Dixon. He has sent for me and I can’t, and I wondered ’ 

Ryder looked from Mary to Nell. 

“ Dicky Dixon ? Why, yes, certainly, Mary. Is he very 
bad?” 

“ In extremis I am afraid. Oh, I wish ” 

“ Don’t wish ! ” he returned kindly. “ I know you are 
having a bad day to-day. Yes, of course I will go. I had 
better go at once. I’ll come with you, Nell.” 

He knew Nell perfectly well, and was not in the least 
afraid of compromising himself by walking up the street with 
her. Such an idea never once suggested itself to him. 

So they hurried off, and on the way Arthur Calth waite rode 
past and was preparing to salute Ryder ; then he looked with 
blank amazement at his companion, and recovering himself 
quickly he raised his hat and bestowed on Nell one of his 
most radiant smiles. 

Ryder half wondered what was making Calthwaite so 


254 r BA CCA QUEEN 

pleasant to him, but was soon absorbed again in thinking of 
his visit. 

But Nell glowed all over, and could have shaken herself 
in her disgust and mortification, for she knew that in her 
surprise she had been betrayed into answering smile with 
smile. 

“ Mr. Ryder, you hed best wait a minut,” said Nell as they 
came to the little house. 

Nell entered quietly. “ Dicky, darlin’, she couldn’t — she 
couldn’t really ! ” 

Dicky burst into tears. “ Oh, Nell, Nell, and I wanted her. 
I’se waited of her and I wanted her to pray. I kna’ she 
could ! ” 

“ Well, don’t fret thisell, Dicky lad ; thoo moant fret saa ! 
Now be a good lad and I’se tell tha summut. I’se fetched 
Mr. Ryder, he can pray ! ” 

“ Mr. Ryder fra t’ School?” 

“ Eye. Coom in, sir ! ” 

The young man entered bending his six feet instinctively at 
the door. 

“What, crying my boy? No, I know I’m not Miss Mary, 
I wish I were ; but I want you to give me your message for 
her ! ” 

Ryder sat down and took the limp fingers in his large, strong 
hand. 

“ Why, Dicky lad, you are going to Jesus Christ !” 

“ Eye, sir!” 

“ Very, very soon ! ” 

“ I hope saa ! ” 

“ So do I, Dicky. Shall we ask Him about it ? You and 
I, Dicky ? ” 

“ Eye, sir ? ” 

Ryder knelt down by the boy and prayed to the Triune 
God, commending the soul of the child to the infinite fountain 
of love. He prayed for the parents, for Nell, for himself, 
that all might be found worthy of the high calling, and then 
again he repeated his request that the Tender Shepherd 


T BACCA QUEEN 255 

Himself would carry the lamb over the rough stones and 
through the river safe to the other side. 

But Nell, kneeling by the bed, burst into a fit of uncon- 
trollable weeping. 

Then Ryder, rising, leaned over the boy and whispered, 
“ Fear not. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom.” 

And Dicky, stretching out his hand for some flowers, with 
which Nell always kept him plentifully supplied, whispered 
back, “Give them to Miss Mary, and thank her kindly for 
Ottarthwaite. I niver thanked her, and I wanted to. Happen 
I’se see her at t’ far end as soon as any on ye. Tell her I’se 
look out.” 

Ryder took the flowers and passed quickly from the house. 
As he walked up the garden Eleanor came running along, 
having a game with Vixen to relieve the Sunday quiet. 

“ Oh, Mr. Ryder, isn’t she sweet ? Look how she can 
jump ! ” Then seeing the roses she laughed, “ Oh, what lovely 
roses ! Are they for ” 

“ They are for Mary,” he returned rather awkwardly. “ I 
have just brought them. A little dying boy has sent them 
to her.” 

Eleanor blushed crimson. “ Oh, I beg your pardon. I 
mean — I did not know.” And overcome with sudden shyness 
she fled into the house. 

Two days later Nell called and poured out her heart to 
Mary in her strong, abandoned way. 

“ He’s dead ! Dead, Miss Mary 1 Lile Dicky’s dead ! ” 

Mary again acted the comforter, and comforted her with 
the comfort wherewith she also had been comforted of God. 


CHAPTER XXVIII 

Now William Carradus and his wife often discussed Nell and 
her prospects. William thought she was a fine lass spoiling, 
and Janet thought she was a “deal too proud.” 


256 T BACCA QUEEN 

Nell blankly refused all their kindly offers to modify her life, 
and they, being extremely fond of John Fleming, thought they 
saw in him the solution of the problem. If Nell would only 
marry Fleming then all would be well. They went so far as to 
invite John to their comfortable Sunday evening supper-table 
to instruct him as to his duty. 

“ Thoo mun git her, my lad. She’ll hev tha, if thoo sticks 
tull her. Lasses needs to be stuck tull ! Thee get Nell and 
tho’ll hev a grand lass, though I won’t say but what she might 
do wi’ a bit more religion,” remarked William. 

“ Eye, John, and thee be sharp ! She’s doing na good whar 
she is ! ” put in Janet. “ She’ll be oop to summut if she 
doesn’t settle wi’ thee ! Them 'bonny lasses mun aulus ha’ 
some mak o’ courtin’ gaain on, and Nell — what she started 
courtin’ afoor she was out of her impidence ! ” and Janet 
operated on the foaming coffee. 

John smiled rather a sickly smile. “You are very kind, but 
I don’t think a man should force himself on a girl, however 
much he likes her.” 

“ Eye, but Nell’s a bit different from some lasses ! Them 
as wants her ’ull hev to push ! ” 

But William sat thinking things out. “John, my lad, I hev 
it. Thee leave her alaan. Thee don’t offer to gaa near her ! 
Happen that ’ull fetch her. Theer’s nowt sometimes like 
leaving a lass alaan ! ” 

“ I’m sure I never bother her! ” said poor John. 

“ Naa, but thoo looks at her, and thoo fetches her flowers 
and the lass knas weel enough as thoo wad run t’ toon length 
for her any day. It’s bad for lasses is sic like ! ” 

John wondered if the couple were right. He was getting a 
little weary of Nell’s continuous snubbing, for ever since Whit- 
suntide she had never seemed quite herself. Sometimes she 
was cheerful and pleasant, but just when he thought he was 
getting on a little, down went the shutter again, and he was 
left in blank darkness. He thought it might be wise to try 
ignoring Nell, and see what happened, but with the decision 
he thought he was treading on very dangerous ground. 


V BACCA QUEEN 25 7 

It was quite true that ever since the Whitsuntide trip Nell 
had been different. A still deeper discontent with her 
surroundings was manifest. Her bitter words came oftener, 
her cheerful laughter and delightful mockery came less and 
less. She thought she was intensely angry with Calth waite, 
and she argued to herself that here was another case like that 
of her hateful father and her despised mother coming again. 

Sometimes she grew morbid, and wondered if she were beset 
by fate ; then again a delicious thought would come* over and 
over again that perhaps this time it was all right. Perhaps 
God was taking pity on her, and she was meant to rise after all. 
She constantly read in the newspapers of wonderful matches 
between actresses and dukes, and barmaids and officers ; 
perhaps the luck was coming her way. She even took to 
wondering what the lovely Eleanor would say when she, Nell 
Carradus, rose to her level. All such thoughts led practically 
to Nell’s treating her devoted Jack with a petulance which 
amounted often to rudeness. He was indeed, refined com- 
pared with the other lads who sought her favour, but when she 
compared him with the gentlemanly suitor whose every tone 
breathed this world’s politest elegance, and when she con- 
sidered that after all Mr. Calthwaite had behaved thoroughly 
respectfully to her, and that when he met her in the street he 
had raised his hat as if she had been the highest lady in the 
county — when she considered these things, she wondered, and 
wonder on such a matter was dangerous. 

The subject of the Spring Musical Festival was not allowed 
to drop, and Eleanor soon found herself deeply involved in the 
business. Young willing workers always find work, and Miss 
Calthwaite soon put her on to a Committee, and urged her 
to conduct a choir. 

“ You must bring a choir, Miss Carradus, you must indeed ! ” 
and Eleanor, nothing loath, talked the matter over at The 
Abbey, and found that all cordially furthered the design. 

“ You can get up a Scarth Choir,” said Ryder. “ If you 
manage to bring cultured music from such material you will be 
a wonder worker.” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


258 

The idea of difficulty roused Eleanor’s ambition. “ Oh, do 
let me try, it would be such fun ; I should feel I was a little 
use in such a terribly usefully filled house ! ” Eleanor was 
continually throwing out little shots at Ryder and Mary 
regarding their innumerable public works. 

“ I think you may find some surprises even in amongst the 
Scarthsiders,” laughed Mary. 

“ Oh, well, do get the choir up for me, I am just dying to 
begin ! ” 

So Ryder went forth and let it be known that there was an 
intention to send in a Scarth Choir for competition, and 
immediately the songsters of the district set to work to try 
their voices, and talk the matter over. They always did talk 
everything over on the Scarth, and when it became known that 
Miss Eleanor Carradus was to be the conductor, the interest 
further deepened. 

“ Eh, she’ll hev larnt her music i’ Germany. I mind her 
father was auus for t’ music,” Betsy proclaimed. 

It seemed that men, women, girls and boys were wanted to 
form the choir, and Ryder did his utmost to stir up enthusiasm 
on the part of some, and damp it on that of hopeless but 
conceited cases. 

“Now, Nell, lass!” remarked Ben Sinkinson, “noo thoo 
hes thy chance. Thy cousin is cornin’ to lam tha music. 
Happen thoo’ll larn her summut ! ” 

“ I’se larn thee summut, Ben Sinkinson, if thoo doesn’t kep 
thy impidence to thisell ! ” 

“ Eye, and saa will I ! ” cried Jane Ann, bitterly, “ Eh, thee 
ger oot wi tha, thoo d d divil ! ” 

“Shut oop, Jane, wi yon talk!” said Nell. She was not 
fond of the girl, quite the reverse, but foul language hurt her 
in a strange new way. 

But Ben threw back a mocking “ Ha, ha, Jane lass ! ” 
whereat the girl clenched her fists in impotent wrath. 

That night Jane seeking Nell, found her alone in the little 
kitchen as she was busily cleaning up the day’s litter. 

“ Jane Ann Martin ! ” 


259 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Eye, Nell, thoo may weel exe ma ! I thowt as happen 

“ Thoo thowt ? What did ta think ? ” 

Nell was vexed at being interrupted. She had suffered 
much from the girl’s bitter, jealous tongue, so her face was far 
from propitious. 

The visitor feeling the tone, rose again. She had sunk 
down wearily on a chair close to the door. 

“ Naa. It’s a’ reet, I’se nut bother 1 I nobbut thowt as 
happen if thoo telt him ” 

“ Telt wha ? ” 

Nell was still on her knees, but she stopped her washing 
and leant back against the dresser. 

Something in the girl’s look struck her for the first time, and 
a gleam of comprehensive pity swept over her face. She had 
seen so many, and here was the miserable catastrophe once 
again at hand. Another woman spoiled ! — a woman not 
seventeen. 

“Oh, Jane!” 

“ Eye, Nell, that’s it ! I’se coomed, for I thowt Oh, 

Nell, happen thoo could git him to wed ma ! ” 

The girl laid her face down in her hands and sobbed 
hysterically. Nell rose, went to the cottage door and 
locked it. 

“Oh, Jane, Jane, he hesn’t?” 

“ Eye, he hes, he hes ! And noo he waint wed ma ! I’se 

begged and prayed — and — he’s a devil a ” And Jane 

poured forth every curse in her vocabulary, which was not a 
limited one. 

“ And thoo com to me ? ” 

“ Eye, Nell ! ” and she lifted up her poor, plain, irresolute 
face, so young and yet so old. “ Thoo’s sa strang ! Thoo’s 
aulus kept thisell to thisell. Oh, eye ! I’se called (mocked) 
tha many and many a time, but I’se kent aulus as thoo’s kept 
thisell tull thisell and I was mad when Ben looked at tha — and 
noo. — Eh, Nell, did ta iver want to murder anybody ? ” The 
girl’s eyes grew bright with a kind of scared brightness, and 
she dropped her voice to a shrinking whisper. 


26 o 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ Eye ! ” responded Nell. 

• “ He promised to wed ma at t’ August holida’ ! ” 

“ But thoo doesn’t want to wed him ? ” Nell’s voice was 
incredulous, and she emphasised the last word. 

“ If he wad ! ” 

With a great pity Nell looked at the wretched girl. Oh, 
yes, she knew the story well. Boys and girls together, reckless, 
mischievous, sinful, and then the ugly disaster. 

The old horror she had had for years stole over her with a 
weird power as she stood by this sister in sorrow. It felt 
suddenly as if this nightmare of sin were stealing up nearer 
and nearer her own life ; as if she were powerless ; as if she saw 
herself also sitting on that chair with wide, fierce eyes. Oh, it 
was a shame — a shame that the woman should bear all the 
burden for the sin. The woman and the little child. 

“ I can’t hide it long, Nell,” whimpered the girl. “ I’se 
seen em whisperin’ — and oh, my God ! I wish I was 
dead ! ” 

“ And yet thoo wad wed him ! ” 

“ Eh, I wad.” 

“ I’se do my best ! Now get tha yam. Thoo’l ha to bear 
thy burden, my lass, as many another hes hed to do, but I’se do 
my best.” 

So the girl slipped away, and Nell, making short work of 
the cleaning, hurried off on her errand of wrath. She found 
Ben Sinkinson as she expected in the street ; he was enjoying 
himself with a number of young men, but seeing Nell alone, 
and he having the protection of a good audience, it struck him 
that he might venture on “ fun.” 

“ Hullo, Nell — Miss Nell ! Lookin’ for me?” 

“ Eh, Ben Sinkinson, I was ! It’s a grand neet.” 

Ben looked surprised, this was indeed amusing. 

“ Happen a walk down on t’ Moss Road was what thoo was 
thinkin’ aboot, Nell ! ” 

“ T’ vara spot ! ” she returned cheerfully. 

“ Well, I’se jiggered ! So long, mates ! When a feller can 
git t’ ’Bacca Queen theer’s luck on t’ road ! ” 


r BACCA QUEEN 261 

The girl kept up the light chat until she was down on the 
quiet road. 

“Let’s go down by the river,” Nell suggested. It was 
rather dark, and she turned from the lamp-lighted road on to 
the wide strand of shillow, the very same place where poor 
Dicky had had his last swing. 

“ Thoo’s queer, Nell. What ! thou waint tek my arm ? ” 

“ Naa, I waint ! ” 

“Then what did ta coom here for? ” 

“ I’se nut coom to bide, thee don’t think it ! I’se nobbut coom 
to tell tha as thoo mun wed Jane Ann Martin this next month.” 

Ben turned with a loud laugh and a heavy oath. 

“ Thoo waint, thoo saft cooard ! ” 

“Wed Jane Ann — yon dalf silly lass ! What does ta tak 
me for ? Niver, by gum ! ” 

“ Then thoo’s a divil, Ben Sinkinson ! ” 

“ So I is, happen ! ” mocked the great youth, “ So I is, 
happen ; but wed Jane Ann ! Niver, by all t’ divils as iver 
tasted fire. Why, Nell, it’s thee, thee as I want to wed — thee, 
Nell!” and he pulled the girl towards him, but Nell tossed 
herself away. 

“ Oh, but when lasses wants lads by theirsells in t’ dark by 
a river they mun expect ! Coom, Nell, one kiss — a good 
hearty kiss, lass, from t’ bonniest lips i’ Moorshire, and I’se let 
thee gaa ! ” and he made for her again. 

Nell waited motionless. Then, as he closed upon her, 
she put out her strength and thrust him splash into the 
shallow river. “ Wet thy lips theer ! ” she mocked, as he 
floundered spluttering at her feet, and, with a cheerful “ Good- 
neet, my lad ! ” she left him. 


CHAPTER XXIX 

One morning Nell received a letter, which she opened, read, 
and straightway pocketed. 

“ Wha’s thy letter fra ? ” asked her mother. 


262 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ It’s nowt, mother,” but with all her control Nell could not 
avoid the telltale blush. 

Maria Carradus looked quizzically at her. 

“ A love-letter, happen ? I’se be glad when thoo sattles 
thisell, my lass ! ” 

“ Eye, I kna ! And then thoo’ll hev t’ hoose to thisell.” 

It was the month of September, and the town was placarded 
all over with announcements of the Grand Primrose Ball, to 
be opened by Lady Preston and patronised by Sir Matthew 
Preston and all the county Tories in Moorshire. Not that all 
the Tory householders came in person to the exceedingly 
mixed affair, but they sent their menkind, and a few ladies 
came to support Lady Preston, who, as wife of the coming 
candidate for the division, was bound to make an appearance. 

At the moment Moorshire rejoiced in the possession of a 
Liberal member, but the Tories were mustering all their forces 
of wealth and position, hot and strong, to rout the Radicals. 
Sir Matthew, being not only a very handsome but a very fine- 
spoken man with plenty of land and tenant voters, was well 
supported by his land-owning neighbours, who also possessed 
plenty of tenants, but moderate oratorical powers. So this 
year there was a good deal of excitement about the Ball, and 
Farbiggin, being strongly Radical in tendency, looked on with 
interest. As far, however, as the Farbiggin young men and 
women were concerned a ball was a ball, Tory or Radical; 
and the Tory ball being grander and more stylish than the 
Radical ball, was the more prized as giving the better oppor- 
tunity for mixing in really high society. So every factory girl 
who could scrape the ticket money together wanted to go. 

The tobacco-shop girls were not behind in their enthusiasm. 
Those who could go discussed their clothes without inter- 
mission, and those who couldn’t discussed the clothes of the 
others. 

Nell would not give any answer to the many queries as to 
whether she would go or not. 

Fleming certainly would not be going. He did not care 
for balls, in fact considered them of the world worldly, though 


T BACCA QUEEN 263 

as the time drew near he and his master spent a busy week in 
tastefully decorating the hall. 

Then Nell received a letter. And that afternoon she told 
the girls she thought she might as well go. 

The moment a girl has decided to go to a ball, her mind 
leaps to the question of clothes, and as Nell was calling on her 
Aunt Janet she could not resist opening the discussion. And 
while the girl chattered, Janet’s worldly spirit leaped upwards 
regardless of years of steadfast repression, and, waxing enthusi- 
astic, she insisted on bearing all expense and setting her niece 
up properly. 

Janet had grown very fond of Nell, in spite of the pride of 
her independent spirit, which though it constantly baffled her, 
she could not help admiring, and she was glad when at last 
she saw a chance of getting a favour accepted. 

“ Eye, my lass, what, thoo can tek a present fra thy awn 
aunt ! What, even t’ gentry folk give theersells many a 
present, when them as gets them hes plenty afore ! ” So 
Nell somehow could not resist the temptation, and as her uncle 
was out, she and her aunt chattered mischief, and had a 
delightful time together. 

But when William came in, after Nell had left, and heard 
what his wife had done, he was very irate. 

“ Thoo’s done a daft thing, Janet woman. Thoo hes indeed ! 
Yon Nell is flighty enough as it is. Thoo’s sent her wi’ a girt 
push down toward t’ devil ! Theer’s na good ’ull coom of it. 
Mark my words ! ” And Janet retired to rest much depressed, 
but a promise was a promise, and the deed was done, and for 
once she could have her fling. 

So she kept her shopping appointment with Nell the next 
day, and felt that she had not enjoyed herself so much since 
J ohn Carradus’s funeral. 

The one condition Janet made was that Nell should robe at 
her house, and to this Nell gladly acquiesced, for somehow she 
did not care to discuss the ball with her mother. 

Janet was highly delighted at the result of Nell’s taste and 
her own ample expenditure. 


264 


T DACCA QUEEN 


“ Now look, William ! Look, father ! ” she pleaded. “ Look, 
she is thy awn niece. Thoo mun say as she’s bonny ! ” 

And William looked at the vision he saw standing in the 
old-fashioned kitchen, with its oaken wainscotting and blue 
flagged floor. 

Then he sighed, “Eh, Nell, Nell, thoo’ll repent, thoo’ll 
repent ! Thoo knas even t’ divil can mek himself into an angel 
of light ! ” 

“ She’s an angel of light ! ” said Janet. 

“ Then I’se a divil, I suppose ! ” and Nell laughed. “ Niver 
heed, Uncle William, I aulus was a bad ’un thoo knas ! ” 

“ But the Lord wants tha to be a good ’un, my lass ! ” 

There was a knock at the door, and Janet went to open it. 

“ Come in, John, and welcome. You’ve just come the right 
minute.” 

Nell felt inclined to slip away, but this was impossible. 

“ Nell ! ” 

“John! ’’and she made him a sweeping courtesy, but her 
cheeks grew bright at his look of undisguised admiration. 

The frock was of fine soft muslin over primrose-coloured 
silk, and a long yellow sash surrounded the trim waist and fell 
in a long sweep to the ground. The bodice was cut so as to 
show the whiteness of the neck and the set of the head. Nell 
wore no jewels, for she possessed none, but the creamy 
chrysanthemums lying across her breast seemed to supply their 
place. Her sleeves were transparent to the elbow, and fine 
white kid gloves and dainty white satin shoes completed the 
outfit. 

Truly Janet had done well. 

As to Nell’s face, and shining brown hair, and graceful 
figure, these were the same as always, only enhanced by the 
delicate and unusual setting, and her eyes were bright with 
girlish excitement, for Nell had never seen anything quite so 
lovely before, as the sight which met her eyes in the tall, shining 
mirror, which was one of William’s special possessions. And 
the sight was sufficiently exhilarating, and she laughed to 
think that the girl laughing back at her was really her own self. 


265 


T BACCA QUEEN 

A wild desire seized John Fleming to come too, to follow 
the girl — to watch her success. But he cast the thought 
behind him, partly because he feared it was a temptation, and 
mainly, perhaps, because he was hardly sure of a welcome. 

“Well, Jack, and how do I look !” she could not resist saying. 

“ Look, Nell. You look like — like — a real lady ! ” 

He could not have chosen a better compliment, and Nell’s 
eyes sparkled with delight, and she promptly became pleasant 
and genial. She chatted a few moments, and then it was time 
to go. 

“Well, good-neet, t’ lasses ’ull be waiting of ma!” Nell 
was going with a number of girl friends, for she knew nothing 
of the laws of chaperonage. 

When Nell took off her cloak the girls were aghast at her 
splendour. They all yearned for Aunt Janets of their own. 
Still it was surprising how pretty many of them looked in their 
simple finery. 

Nell had hardly been five minutes in the ball-room before 
Calthwaite found her out. 

“ Then you got my little letter ? ” and he smiled. 

“ Yes, I got it. T’ postman always brings letters as are 
sent ! ” 

“ Oh, but you came, Miss Nell. Your card, please.” 

Nell loved dancing; she danced well, and so did Calthwaite. 
It was one of the things this man really could do, and it was 
joy indeed to glide over the beautiful floor to the strains of 
music which sent the magical desire tingling through every 
pulse. 

Very soon people were asking who the girl was, and women 
looked and men stared, and Nell, gaining more confidence 
every moment, looked her fairest, stateliest self. 

Calthwaite was thoroughly enjoying himself. He had a 
knack of seizing upon the ripest fruits of life. The Lady 
Margaret Temple’s sour grapes were indeed sour before this 
luscious bunch just falling into his grasp. 

He was obliged to relinquish her now and again, for Nell 
found herself quite the rage. 

18 


266 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ Miss Carradus ? Miss Carradus was whispered about 
Any relation to the Miss Carradus ? ” 

But Eleanor was not there, partly because the Glyns did not 
frequent balls, and partly because if they had done so this was 
the Tory celebration, and Mary and Ryder were certainly not 
Tories. 

“And who is the lady in the yellow sash talking to Dr. 
Maddison ? ” asked Sir Matthew of one of the stewards. “ I 
don’t seem to know her. An exceedingly stylish girl !” 

“ That lady ? ” and the steward half smiled, for he happened 
to be one of the managers at the tobacco factory. “ Oh, she 
is a very well-known Farbiggin beauty. Altogether the rage 
in some circles ! She is known by the title of the ‘ ’Bacca 
Queen.’ She holds quite a court.” 

“Iam afraid I do not exactly understand.” 

“ She is really a tobacco factory girl ! and a Scarthsider ! 
Get Nell, the ’Bacca Queen, on your side, Sir Matthew, and 
you’ll poll the Scarth voters solid — they all bow to Nell. In 
fact we do ourselves at the works.” 

Sir Matthew strolled forward. He was extremely anxious 
to make friendly overtures to all sorts and conditions this 
evening. 

“Ah, how do you do, Dr. Maddison ? Delightful muster this.” 

“Yes, they all seem enjoying themselves mightily.” 

“ I wonder if I may have the pleasure of an introduction to 
your lady ? ” and Sir Matthew bestowed on Nell a benign and 
patronising smile. 

Dr. Maddison gave Nell a swift, comical look — he was not 
going to give his “ lady ” away, however. 

“ Oh, certainly, Sir Matthe.v, delighted. Sir Matthew 
Preston — Miss Carradus ! ” 

Sir Matthew bowed his tall, stately figure, but never a 
movement made Nell. 

“No manners,” thought the candidate, “Still one must 
rough it amongst these people.” 

“ May I have the pleasure of this coming waltz ? I still 
enjoy a good waltz,” and he smiled graciously. 


T BACCA OUEEN 


267 


“ I beg your pardon ? ” 

Nell spoke coolly with ever so slight a hint of the Scarth 
accent, and bent her head back slightly. 

“ If you are not engaged with a younger partner, Miss 
Carradus, perhaps you will honour me.” Sir Matthew could 
not persuade his tone to avoid a slight touch of sarcasm. 

“ I would not dance with you for a kingdom, Sir Matthew 
Preston.” She spoke clearly and slowly. Then she bowed 
slightly, turned her back on the baronet and strolled away. 

Sir Matthew looked after her, and laughed a short, awkward 
laugh. 

“ Good gracious, Doctor ! What manners ! Was I too old 
for her, or what ? ” 

“A wilful beauty, I suppose. But Nell Carradus generally 
has a reason of her own for what she does.” The doctor did 
not care for Sir Matthew, but to himself he thought, “ Good 
heavens, there’s something beneath that ! I must find out. 
When Nell Carradus throws her head back like that she means 
battle, and when Nell means battle let the British army beware !” 

But the music played seductively, and the innumerable 
dancers flooded the floor, and Nell was soon taking her place 
with the rest. 

Time after time Calthwaite selected her, and her factory 
friends looked on with mixed jealousy and pride ; but Nell, 
throwing herself into the present, kept an eye on the baronet 
waiting her chance. 

Once in the supper-room she happened to hear a snatch of 
conversation which sent the blood rushing to her brow. 
“ Oh, well, what can one expect of these low breeds out for a 
holiday. But she is a d d fine girl for all that.” 

So Nell waited still more earnestly for her chance, and it 
came at last as chances sometimes do come. 

The hall was very hot, and at one end the windows opened 
on to a balcony overlooking the High Street. It was getting 
rather late, and Sir Matthew was tired. He had danced a 
great deal, made conversation, and courted popularity until he 
felt that at all cost he must have a breath of fresh air. 


268 


T BACCA QUEEN 


He opened the window and stepped out. 

Quick as thought the girl followed him, and closed the door 
behind her. 

“ Sir Matthew ! ” Still the quiet, slightly artificial voice. 

He turned quickly and saw the tall figure before him. 

“ Miss Carradus ! To what do I owe this — this pleasure ? 
What can I do for you?” and he smiled, remembering the 
coming election. 

She came up to him and laid her hand on his arm — it 
trembled slightly at the first contact, then steadied, and she 
looked fearlessly into his eyes. 

He moved back slightly. “Was this girl mad ? ” 

She seemed to read his thoughts. 

“No, I am not mad — do not alarm yourself. I am only 
one of those low breeds out for a holiday, Sir Matthew!” 

The Baronet could not for a moment think of any reply, but 
drew back still further, leaning his back up against the balcony 
rail. She still, however, kept her hand on his arm — still 
looked straight into his eyes. 

“ Have you ever heard of Maria Carradus ? ” 

He started violently. “ No, don’t move. It is all right ! 
You are not afraid ! Afraid ! You couldn’t be afraid, you 
know. Not afraid of your own daughter ! ” 

“ Good heavens ! ” he ejaculated, and his lips were as white 
as his countenance. 

Mechanically he noticed the panting of her breast beneath 
the muslins. Here was an unexpected — an awful catastrophe. 
A horrible miscalculation. Sir Matthew had for long years 
been able to settle matters with Maria Carradus. That had 
been comparatively simple. But this handsome, queenly 
daughter with her proud fierceness ! What was he to do with 
her ? Something must be done at once. This very moment. 
Why, the fulfilment of his highest ambition might depend on 
his stopping such a scandal. His political career lay in the 
grasp of this girl who stood fixedly gazing into his eyes, whose 
strong hand grasped his arm. 

“It’s no use your saying ‘Good heavens,’ Sir Matthew,” and 


T BACCA QUEEN 269 

she tightened her grasp. “ Do you know that I’ve cursed you 
as a child — I have cursed you as a girl, and I have been 
waitin’ — waitin’ to curse you here — here when I am a woman 
grown ! I have been waitin’ for this hour ! ” 

She stood back from him a pace, but her eyes never left 
his face. 

“You are cold ! ” He was shivering in his thin suit. The 
cold wind was blowing strong against her neck and arms and 
rioting with her hair, but Nell was not cold. 

“ You are cold ! ” she repeated scornfully. “ I am glad that 
you are cold ! Oh, that you were cold for all eternity ! Maria 
Carradus has often been cold, and her little Nell, your 
daughter, has often been bitterly, bitterly cold. I am glad 
that you are cold, Sir Matthew ! ” 

“ My good girl ! ” 

“ My good girl ! ” she mocked, and throwing away all 
restraint, she burst into her strongest Scarth vernacular. 
“Thee and such as thee are t’ curse o’ t’ warld ! My moother — 
oh, there’s naa love lost atwixt me and my moother. But for 
a’ that, my moother was young yance. She was yance nineteen, 
as I to-day. She was bonny yance as I is to-neet ! Then thoo 
— thoo com and took t’ life out on her. She niver lived reet 
sin thoo com tull her wi thy handsome face and leein’ tongue ! 

And to-neet ” Nell herself started violently as she cast 

her eyes down on to the street below. “ Sees ta. Sees ta, 
Sir Matthew ! ” she said in a hoarse, unnatural voice, seizing 
his unwilling arm again. “ Sees ta theer ! ” She pointed to 
the street below. Amongst a few loungers waiting to see the 
close of the ball was the miserable figure of a woman. She 
was having a noisy altercation with a policeman, who was 
trying to persuade her away. 

The man looked — impelled by the girl’s fierce demand. 
Even as they gazed they could distinctly hear the maudlin 
sentence, “ Let ma a-be, let ma a-be ! Theer’s a lass o’ mine 
in yonder — a lass wi’ a yaller frock ! ” 

The situation staggered the baronet. No denial was 
possible. He knew the woman in the street below, he 


270 


T BACCA QUEEN 


could recognise himself clearly in this girl’s handsome, high- 
bred face. Sir Matthew knew that there were hundreds in 
Moorshire who had slipped in their youth, and who were 
busily seeking in their later years to live in respectable irre- 
proachableness, yet the world is an odd, inconsistent place, 
and should this thing come out — should the opposite party 
get wind of the interesting scandal — should even his own 
friends be persuaded of the truth, he knew that his chance 
was over. 

Maria Carradus, as so often happens in like cases, had kept 
secret the circumstances attending her first bitter disaster, with 
a pathetic honour, and he had willingly subsidised her on 
application, on condition that she kept her councel. But he 
felt now, instinctively, that there was no question of subsidising 
here. He seemed to hear the fatal “ Checkmate ” as he 
looked round every corner of the board for some loophole of 
defence or escape. There was nothing, however, for it but 
again to try conciliation. 

“ Upon my word I am really very sorry — very sorry indeed 
to see this trouble of yours, but, my dear,” and the baronet 
smiled with a nervous wanness to which Nell’s eyes glared 
their challenge, “ I have always sought to treat your mother 
generously. You must not be so furious. No one can regret 
more than myself the — the accident ! ” 

The girl leaped from him and drawing herself up to her full 
height she replied slowly and proudly, “ Does ta call me an 
accident, father ? ” 

They eyed each other steadily — he inwardly cursing 
himself — she waiting at ease for the reply which did not 
come. 

Was that vision of anger and beauty a mere “ accident ” ? 

The baronet shivered again. How could he get rid of 
this girl? 

“ What do you want ? ” His voice was suppressed into an 
artificial mildness. 

“Want? Not them five-pund notes thoo sends noo and 
agen to my mother when she’s short o’ beer ! I want nowt — 


T BACCA QUEEN 


27 1 


nowt. I don’t even want thy naam ! Thy reet spot is ont’ 
street down yonder,” and she moved towards him. There 
was an ugly menace in her look and the baronet began to 
bluster. 

“Good heavens, madam, but you forget yourself!” 

“Forgit ! Nell Carradus niver forgits ! It’s Nell Carradus’ 
father as tries to forgit. Thoo stirs and I’se oppen these glass 
doors and tell iverybody at t’ Ball as thoos is my father. My 
father ! Father o’ t’ ’Bacca Queen ! ” 

Sir Matthew positively trembled. He was perfectly aware 
that there was only that sheet of glass between himself and 
social ruin. 

“ Wha’s freetened noo?”she mocked. “Thoo’s a bonny 
man, t’ bonniest man i’ Moorshire — and I’se the bonniest 
woman, so they saa ! Father and dawghter ! If thee and me 
stood togither i’ yon room — Champion ! It ’ull be a grand thing 
for Sir Matthew Preston, na doubt, when he comes vote- 
cadgin’ round t’ Scarth to hev t’ ’Bacca Queen tull him for a 
dawghter ! Naa, bide thee still. I’se nut thra tha ower intull 
t’ street to seek my mother this time. Thy broken neck’s nut 
worth mine. Beside, theer’s better ways than yon,” and she 
turned to re-enter the brilliant ball-room. 

But her movement caused Sir Matthew to leap forward. 

“ Miss — Miss Carradus, one moment. I pray you. You 
don’t mean to say that you dare ” 

“ Niver heed what I dare ! Nell Carradus can dare maist 
things. It’s in her blood !” 

“ Yes, yes,” he stammered hurriedly. “ But you know I am 
willing to do anything in reason — anything. If there is any 
way in which I can make up to you personally, Miss Carradus, 
for ” 

“ Theer’s some things i’ this warld, Sir Matthew, as can niver 
be made up — some things as follow folk tull their graves. I 
kna, and you kna as I kna. That’s plenty for you to think 
ower for to-neet. Theer’s plenty o’ time ! ” 

And with this threat she turned and left him, and Sir 
Matthew, shrinking back from the flood of light as the 


272 


V BACCA QUEEN 


curtained door opened, could not control the groan that 
burst from him — a groan of fierce anger, humiliation, and 
helpless suspense. 

As Nell re-entered the room with white cheeks and flaming 
eyes she encountered Dr. Maddison. 

“It’s a cold night,” she remarked nonchalantly, but she 
dropped her eyes. 

Now the doctor had seen her follow Sir Matthew and he 
knew that it was no cold wind that had driven the colour from 
her face. 

“It is, Nell. Well, get yourself ready and I will see you 
home.” 

His tone rather than the words sent the quick blood flushing 
back into the proud face. 

“ Is it late ? ” and she clasped her hands together nervously. 

“ Certainly it is late. Besides, you have had enough, Nell. 
Do you hear ? I intend to take you home, and I can’t w r ait ! ” 

The long period of the doctor’s training worked on the girl, 
and she turned reluctantly. 

“ What, surely not going Miss Carradus ? ” said Calth waite 
at her elbow. 

“ Yes, she is going with me,” said the doctor shortly. 
“ She is under my care to-night ! ” 

“ Oh, I beg your pardon, Doctor. I did not know that ” 

“That I take a great interest in Miss Carradus?” continued 
the doctor, looking Calthwaite quietly in the face. 

“ Ah ! ” and he laughed pleasantly as Nell departed, “ she is 
a girl to take an interest in. You are a lucky man.” 

“Now, Nell,” said the doctor as they went up the street, 
“ tell me exactly what you have been doing.” 

“ Only cursin’ my father,” said the girl defiantly. The 
cold was striking through her thin cloak now. 

“ Good gracious ! Nell ! Explain yourself ! ” 

“ He’s my father. Him as you called Sir Matthew. I 
introduced myself to him again to-night — and — he didn’t — it 
didn’t suit him. That’s a’ ! ” 

“ Do you think you were wise ? ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


273 


“ Do you ? ” 

“ I think, Nell, that you will have to be careful — very careful. 
Nell, my dear, I am old enough to be your father myself. I 
like you, and what’s more I respect you — respect you, Nell ; 
do you understand ? ” 

Nell shivered. 

“ I hear you,” she spoke doggedly. 

“ Yes, but I want you to understand. I have seen much 
to-night. I fear strong temptation is coming to you, Nell. 
I’m not a religious man, far from it, but if ever you prayed in 
your life, Nell Carradus, pray now. You know what I mean.” 

They walked a few steps together silently. 

“ Now off with you to bed,” and Dr. Maddison put out his 
hand, for they were at the door. 

Nell put out her hand. 

“ Good-neet, Doctor. Thank you for cornin’. But theer’s 
naa bed for me to-neet. T’ mill bells ’ull be ringin’ afore long 
now. I’se get my breakfast afore t’ ’Bacca shop oppens. My 
mother ’ull be waitin’ of me unless she’s in t’ lock-up. I saa 
her in t’ street nut long sin. Aye, I is a happy, happy lass ! ” 

“Well, God bless you!” said the doctor. He turned 
sharply away. Something in the unutterable contrasts in this 
girl’s existence touched him acutely. She must not, must not 
go under. He must really do something — but what ? 

And Nell lifted the latch and entered her home. 

Her mother was still out, so she quickly removed her finery. 
Before doing so, however, she took one last wistful look at 
herself in the rickety little glass, then she doggedly put on the 
old working frock, made up the fire again and prepared the 
frugal breakfast. 

The early morning light was creeping round and it was very 
cold, and her clogs felt heavy after the satin slippers, but the 
tea was refreshing. 

So Nell sat by the fire until her mother came rioting in, 
exultantly waving a crackling note. 

“ Eh, Nell lass, I fund him. I did fer sure, joost as he was 
gettin’ in tull his carriage. And t’ minnut he seed me, he was 


274 


T BACCA QUEEN 


oot wi this ! I’d nowt to say, nowt at a’. But I heard him 
leein’ tull his wife — ‘a beggar woman, my dear, I’ve given 
her a copper,’” and the drunken woman mimicked the 
baronet’s grand style. “ Noo, my lass, I’se do for a bit.” 

And she sat down by the fire and warmed her miserable 
wind-driven body, and smoothing out the five-pound note on 
her knee she looked at it lovingly. 

She muttered away to herself for a little while and then fell 
asleep, the note resting loosely on her knee. 

Nell looked at the woman and she looked at the note. She 
lifted the note with the tips of her fingers, and regarded 
it attentively, then she looked at the glowing fire. The 
strained, woebegone appearance of the woman seemed to hold 
her back from executing her strong desire. Her own wonder- 
ful success to-night brought back her mother’s rambling 
histories of the days long ago, when she was a bright, bonny 
girl. Again she traced the signs of misery on the prematurely 
old face. 

“It’s a’ she hes to live for noo,” she said relentingly, as if 
excusing herself. Then she laid the note in the rough, ill-kept 
hand and the woman even in her sleep clutched it tightly. 
Soon after the bells began their insolent pealing of “ Oh dear, 
what can the matter be ?” and Nell turned hurriedly off to her 
work. 


CHAPTER XXX 

“ The fatal hour is come,” said Ryder one evening shortly 
after the celebrated Primrose Ball. “ I hope you do not feel 
very nervous ? I have done my utmost to get the very best 
that the Scarth affords, and have seriously risked my personal 
popularity in the cause of music ! ” 

Eleanor was standing by the fire near Mary. Dinner was 
over, and she was already dressed in scarlet cloak, white fur, 
and a little round red cap. 

“ Eleanor is not nervous,” laughed Mary. “ She is panting 


V BACCA QUEEN 275 

to begin. She has been studying the music for weeks, and is 
glorying in her difficulties.’' 

“I’m not exactly nervous, but that may be because I don’t 

know. No, I’m not nervous about the music, but I wonder ” 

She stopped. 

“Well, dear? ” said Mary kindly. 

“ Well, Miss Glyn, it does feel rather funny to know that 
perhaps one may be going to meet relations ! Shall I, do you 
think ? ” 

Father, son, and daughter had already thoroughly discussed 
the matter of Eleanor’s meeting her relations, and Mary had 
urged extreme simplicity of action. “ If she asks, tell her. 
We can’t play Providence beyond a certain point, father. I 
think we have managed very well to keep her so separate until 
she has found her ground in England.” 

So when the inevitable question came Mary was ready. 

“ Yes, dear, I think you will. There will be some of the 
Carraduses in the choir. Several of them are very musical. 
William Carradus, your father’s brother, and two of his sons, 
Reuben and Jo, are all wonderful singers.” 

“And Nell, of course ! ” put in Ryder. 

“Who is Nell? ” asked Eleanor. 

“ That tall girl you took a fancy to at Whitsuntide, if you 
remember ! ” 

“ Oh, of course ! Nell, the ’Bacca Queen, they called 
her. Why, she’s a glorious girl — and is she really my 
relation ? ” 

Mr. Glyn came into the room at the moment and heard the 
question. 

“ Whom are you talking about ? ” 

“Why, father, will you tell Miss Carradus about Nell?” 
said Ryder. 

“Nell Carradus?” said Mr. Glyn in a matter-of-fact voice. 
« Yes, she is your cousin. She is a girl I am extremely sorry 
for. Such a wretched home. She seems one of those girls 
for whom there is no chance.” 

“ Is she my first cousin ? ” 


276 


r BACCA QUEEN 


“Yes.” 

“ Then her father was my father’s brother ? ” 

“No, her mother was his sister ” 

“ Really, father,” put in Ryder hastily, “ I don’t think we 
need worry Miss Carradus with genealogies ! ” 

“ Oh, but I would much rather know,” said Eleanor rather 
petulantly ; “ I might as well know everything. I have been 
thinking for a long time that it is stupid to be going about 
with my head in the sand. I’m not an ostrich. Now, aren’t 
you on my side, Miss Glyn ? ” 

Mary answered the appeal with a smile. “ I don’t see, 
father, that she will be any worse for knowing. Eleanor is 
extremely strong-minded, I have discovered ! ” 

“She will not be any worse,” replied Mr. Glyn, a trifle 
reprovingly, “only, my dear, you know that her grandfather 
preferred that she should not mix with her Scarth relations. 
However, I think we can keep the spirit of the desire, and yet 
tell her what she would like to know. You see, Miss Eleanor, 
Nell’s mother was your father’s only sister, and she was never 
married, so Nell takes her mother’s name. That is all.” 

“ Dear me ! ” returned Eleanor lightly, and opened her 
heavy cloak. “Well, it really is most extraordinary to find 
one’s relations creeping out unawares one by one. I shall 
get them all collected in time, I suppose. Does this girl 
know me ? ” 

“ Oh dear, yes. Everybody knows who you are ! ” said 
Mary. “ I expect you have been more discussed than any 
one in Farbiggin these last few months ! ” 

“ Mary ! ” remonstrated Ryder. “ How can you ! ” 

“ Oh, I know Eleanor better than you do. I have dis- 
covered that she is quite a sensible person. She can stand 
my rubbish ! ” 

“ Then you’ll let me be introduced, Mr. Glyn ? ” cried 
Eleanor. “ Oh, what fun ! I foresee a scene ! I wonder 
if she hates me ? ” 

“ I do not suppose for a moment that she loves you,” and 
he smiled, then added soberly, “ I think I ought to tell you 


T BACCA QUEEN 277 

that her mother was hurt, and perhaps rightly so, that your 
grandfather cut her out of his will. I am sorry to say it has 
made a sore place, and probably Nell feels the difference in 
your respective positions.” 

“Why, of course. But is not that rather a shame, Mr. 
Glyn? Do you mean that I have got it all, and this cousin 
has nothing? ” 

“ That is the present arrangement ! ” 

“ Oh, I think that is abominable. I really do ! Don’t you, 
Miss Glyn?” 

“Well, dear, of course, a will is a will, and at present ” 

“ But why can’t I give them some money now ? ” She 
looked questioningly at the lawyers, father and son, as if she 
had found such an easy way out of the difficulty. “ You must 
know yourself, Mr. Glyn, that it is quite absurd for me to have 
so much. Surely I could give them some ? ” 

“ I am afraid Nell is hardly the kind of person to accept 
a favour, but, at any rate, you shall get to know her if you like. 
She has a remarkable voice, as you will soon discover.” 

Eleanor’s musical enthusiasm waked. “Oh, that is splendid! 
Then I can teach her, and she and I can come out together 
on the stage, and I will go about and accompany, and she 
shall make her fortune. That will be glorious. How jolly 
it will look on the bills ! — ‘ Nell Carradus ’ — very, very big, 
because they always make the most fuss about the singer, 
and then very small — ‘ Eleanor Carradus, accompanist and 
solo piano.’ Oh, and we should want a tenor in the troupe. 
Perhaps you could come, Mr. Ryder. Singing pays a great 
deal better than lawyering ! ” 

“ It is hardly kind to mock my trumpet tones,” said Ryder, 
laughing. “ I know you and Mary have often laughed over 
my attempts ! ” 

“ And I think,” struck in Mary, “ that you had better 
hurry off or the whole affair will fall through. You have 
quite enough work on hand to bring the Scarth up to the 
standard of the Moorshire Festival, without wasting a moment 
of practising time.” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


278 

Meanwhile the proposed singers were awaiting the appear- 
ance of their conductor with keen interest. They had, of 
course, seen her at Ottarthwaite Park, but so far she had not 
been brought to the Mission, as on Sundays she went to the 
parish church with Catherine and the Vicarage party. 

They were, therefore, now prepared to see what she was 
made of. At Ottarthwaite they had decided that she was 
simply a young lady. Pretty, of course, as an heiress should 
be, but “ Nowt perticiler. Summut like these play fairies wi’ 
her blue eyes and pink cheeks and gowlden hair.” 

Eleanor’s personal appearance perhaps made this a fair 
impression ; but no one can after all wrestle with and conquer 
any subject as Eleanor had done without being deepened and 
widened thereby ; and no one could have passed through the 
discipline of pain, solitude, and poverty that had been Eleanor’s 
lot without receiving a character power, ready to work itself 
out as the need arose. 

That slight, golden-haired girl had fought her way to inde- 
pendence before the fortune arrived ; but the Scarthsiders of 
course did not know that. 

“ Now, Mr. Ryder ! ” said she, in a low, quick voice, as they 
entered the schoolroom. “Tell me which they are.” 

There was a good representative number present. Catherine, 
engaged as accompanist, Maud, John Fleming, several school 
teachers, selected boys and girls, amongst whom Tom and 
Katie Benson had turned up smiling, and a number of men 
and girls. 

Ryder led her along the room towards William Carradus, 
who was talking to Catherine. “ William,” said Ryder, “ I 
think you know Miss Carradus. She wants to shake hands 
with you.” 

William put out his hard, stiff hand. “ I’m pleased to meet 
you, miss. I hope as you’re well ? ” 

“ Quite well, thank you, uncle William. You are my uncle, 
are you not ? ” 

“Aye, miss, I’m your uncle. I was your father’s brother, 
poor Dick ! Well, well, he’s gone to his account ! ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 279 

“ And where are my cousins ? ” 

“ Reuben and Jo do you mean, miss ? They’re yonder ! ” 
and he pointed with his finger to two straight, hearty-faced 
young men. “You see, miss, we’ve all heard tell as you’re 
grand with the singing, Mr. Ryder here has telt us so. He 
came to our shop, and he says, ‘ William, you have to come 
and lam music,’ and I says, ‘What for?’ and he says, ‘Because 
I tell you, and there’s the grandest teacher coming as will 
make you all look alive with your droning and steam-roller 
kind of music ! * That’s what he said, miss ! ” 

Eleanor laughed. “Well, I hope you won’t be disappointed, 
that’s all ! And where is Nell ? Ah, I think I see her, I’ll 
just slip across before we begin.” 

Nell, though chatting to Sarah Jameson, was furtively 
watching her cousin’s movements, and pricing her red 
cloak. 

“ Eye, yon’s Nell. She’s a grand singer is Nell — t’ best of 
t’ lot ! ” 

Ryder could not help admiring the simple self-possession of 
the girl, the instinctive courtesy of her manner, as she walked 
promptly across the room. 

“ Nell Carradus, I believe. We are cousins, so I hear. We 
ought to shake hands.” 

She put out her gloved hand almost eagerly. 

Now naughty Nell had had fifty minds as to whether to lower 
herself by coming to the singing practice. It was only 
Catherine’s sprightly insistence and her own powerful desire 
in the musical direction which had brought her, and she had 
confided to Sarah that “speak to yon heiress she wadn’t. 
And if she tried to mistress it ower her she wad show her.” 

And Sarah had laughed pleasantly. “Why, Nell, thoo 
thinks a deal too mitch. Tek’ t’ pleasant things as comes, 
thoo’s aulus frettin’ ower somethin’ or somebody ! ” 

So Nell disregarded the outstretched hand and said quietly 
in her strongest accent, “ Wha said as I was your cousin ? ” 

Eleanor drew back a minute. “ Oh, they told me at The 
Abbey. Why don’t you want to shake hands ? ” 


28 o 


V BA CCA QUEEN 


“ Nad, I don’t kna!” 

Sarah jerked Nell indignantly, she felt vexed with her. And 
Nell could have shaken herself for her ungraciousness, but she 
could not bring herself to answering that childish smile, and 
she could not get over the red cloak and the white fur. 

So she half put out her hand as a compromise, and Eleanor 
took it cordially for an instant. 

“ Miss Carradus,” and Ryder came up, “ I think they are 
all ready now.” So the time was passed for private conversa- 
tion, and when a general settlement had taken place Ryder got 
up and held forth in his usual impetuous earnest way. 

He knew the Scarthsiders well. He was a favourite with 
them, for they respected his earnestness and took his chaff in 
good part. He was a Glyn, and that was in his favour, so he 
spoke with easy geniality, confident in being understood. 

“ Now then, my friends. We are settled at last. Trebles, 
altos, tenors, basses — a goodly company. Well, I won’t keep 
you a moment ; here we are all assembled to show what our 
beloved old Scarth can do when it sets itself. We all know, 
don’t we, what they say about us in Farbiggin ? They think 
we are only good for beer drinking and election fights. But 
we are determined to come out next spring — come out amongst 
the high and mighty of Moorshire — show that on the Scarth, in 
spite of our difficulties (and, my friends, I know some of them) 
we have a soul for music — a desire for culture and art. We 
are all going to join together for work. No shirking allowed, 
no jealousy. Mind that, you conceited tenors and basses over 
there. ‘ I’m a beautiful tenor myself, I’ve been told by those 
that should know.’ Oh, you needn’t all look as if you didn’t 
understand. I have seen and heard some ‘ fratching ’ even in 
Mrs. Glyn’s choir. I don’t pretend to understand whether the 
trebles and altos work happily together, but I do know about 
the men. As for you children, order and obedience, or, 
though you sing like cherubs, you will get chucked out. 

“But, honestly friends, steady, earnest work and patient work 
is required. We are not getting up an entertainment, we are 
trying for a prize. Let us deliver ourselves and our ideas over 


28 i 


T BACCA QUEEN 

into the hands of our conductor, who has come all the way 
from Germany for this special purpose. Most of us could 
really conduct better than she is going to do, and our ideas 
are probably more valuable, but as we can’t help ourselves, let 
us drop our own notions for this winter, and rejoice that we 
are the only choir who has a lady from the land of music to 
instruct us. Let us work for her honour as well as our own, 
and whether we fail or win — and we can hardly expect to come 
out top the first year — still we shall have gained in steadiness 
of purpose, culture, and in having passed many a pleasant 
hour together.” 

“ Hear, hear, Mr. Ryder ! ” came from many a voice in 
enthusiastic tones. “ Thoo’ll see, my lad, as t’ Scarthsiders 
can sing as weel as them coountry lads and lasses. We’se 
show ’em ! ” called a voice. 

“ All right. We will ! Now, Miss Carradus.” 

Eleanor rose. “ I don’t know if I have to make a speech, I 
hope not, but I should like to tell you that I have never 
conducted a choir before, but I have seen it done in Germany, 
and I’ll do my very best. It is really very kind of you all to 
come. Mr. Glyn just now spoke as if I had been made in 
Germany, when all the time I’m half a Scarthsider. Never 
mind. Let’s begin. Oh, and you won’t mind my pulling you 
up, will you? I must, you know. It is part of the process. 
Yes, I think that’s all I want to say.” And then the first 
grind began. 

Eleanor’s shyness wore off as soon as she found herself 
deep in the music. Her charm of manner, and her little 
imperious decisiveness interested them. They wondered what 
she would do next, and her style of “ pulling them up ” partook 
of so much of the comical element that she warded off dis- 
content. “ Eh, lad, she hed tha yon time ! ” one would say to 
another on leaving the practice, “ Eye, she kens her job does 
yon lass ! ” would be the tough acknowledgment. 

The Scarthsiders knew well enough whether a man or a 
WO man “kent their job,” and Eleanor rose in their respect. 

Still it was hard work — far harder than Eleanor had ever 

19 


282 T BACCA QUEEN 

conceived, and notwithstanding the manful aid given her by 
both Ryder and Catherine, she was often discouraged. 

“ I shall go into my grave over the struggle with the pitch 
and the tone, Mr. Ryder,” she remarked disconsolately after 
an evening’s battle. 

“ Oh, I hope not, Miss Carradus, don’t worry over the 
thing. Besides, they listen to their own singing far, far better 
than they ever did, and the Scarth accent is really disappear- 
ing. It is indeed. The south country judges will soon be 
unable to pounce upon it.” 

On the very first night, of course, Eleanor discovered Nell’s 
extraordinary gift, and as soon as ever the practice ceased she 
was wild to induce her to train. 

“ Nell, you must let me train you. You must, indeed.” 

“Why?” 

“ Oh, you must ! Why, you have a most remarkable voice. 
You have indeed. Do let us try together to win the solo prize 
for Scarth!” 

Nell’s eyes glistened. She was better tempered now. The 
singing had cheered her. 

“ Naa, I don’t kna ! ” 

“ Mr. Ryder, I want Nell to come to The Abbey and 
practise with me. Miss Glyn would not mind, would she ? ” 

“ Oh dear, no, Mary would be delighted 1 ” 

“ Oh, then you will, won’t you ? ” 

“ Nad, I don’t kna ! ” 

“ I tell you,” said Eleanor, “ you must. You really must. 
I leave it to your conscience to refuse. Now let me see. The 
day after to-morrow. Would that do, or have you any other 
engagement ? ” 

“ Not as I know on.” A smile crept to Nell’s mouth at the 
idea of her fiaving important engagements. 

“ Well, you know, an hour twice a week would do it, so 
mind you come. Oh, whatever the choir does, I’m bound to 
have success with you.” 

Nell made no promise, but she came, and she was well 
rewarded, for never had pupil more enthusiastic teacher. 


V DACCA QUEEN 283 

Eleanor was delighted to find such material to work on. 
Though no great singer herself, she had had the best possible 
training, and it was joy indeed to work out her own knowledge 
through such a wonderful medium. 

At first Nell was prepared to be stubborn and awkward to 
do with, and a stupid bashfulness came over her, but Eleanor’s 
unlimited admiration for her voice, and her own delight in the 
power she felt within her, gradually thawed her, and before 
many evenings had passed Mary from her couch smiled to 
herself as she listened to the unconscious chatterings of the girls. 

Perhaps Eleanor’s greatest difficulty was in the matter of 
pronunciation. 

Tenderly and with rare courtesy Eleanor approached the 
subject. But Nell saw instantly through all disguised 
suggestion. 

“You mean as I speak too broad?” 

“Well, you know, it is all right if we had a Moorshire 
judge, but I thought perhaps as the judge was coming from 
London ” 

“ I know, but I can learn, can’t I ? ” 

“ Oh yes ! ” said the teacher tactfully. “You know, you have 
such a very musical ear, you will catch it up easily.” 

And from that hour Nell listened carefully to both Mary 
and Eleanor and patiently corrected her pronunciation not 
only in songs but in ordinary speaking until at last Mary 
yearned for the dear, racy dialect which Nell dropped the 
moment she entered the Abbey precincts. 

Possibly some of the pains taken had another object in view. 
Why should she not show that she also could speak like a lady ? 
It was not John Fleming of whom Nell was thinking at the 
moment. 

But besides her own practical work, Eleanor found herself 
snapped up by the Competition Committee. 

Miss Calthwaite was a great one in connection with the 
business arrangements, and as the winter advanced, and the 
new spring again gave promise of appearing, the Committees 
thickened. 


284 T BACCA QUEEN 

Eleanor was often sent for to Calthwaite; and week by week 
Arthur Calthwaite, though carefully abstaining from laying 
himself open to any serious grind, encouraged anything which 
made pleasant opportunities for paying Eleanor his impressive 
attentions. 

So the first trembling excitement Eleanor had felt in June 
had deepened perceptibly during the year, and nothing was 
now so intensely interesting as going to Calthwaite, and no 
social gaiety seemed complete if the Calthwaite party were 
not there. 

On the Calthwaite side, no arrangement was, according to 
Arthur, properly arranged unless Miss Carradus could be 
included, and long, delightful riding and skating parties were 
arranged by the long-suffering Gertrude for the sole purpose of 
including Eleanor. 

And Gertrude smiled to herself sometimes as she saw her 
brother nerving himself up for a winter’s afternoon skate in 
order to pay attention to the fur-clothed, active little lady who, 
after her long experience of German winters, mocked at this 
English cold. 

And Mary looked on in silence, and listened to Eleanor’s 
chatterings about what was done at Calthwaite, and how 
sweet Mrs. Calthwaite was, and what a really nice person 
Miss Calthwaite seemed to be, without committing herself to 
much reply. 

Certainly, all through the autumn and winter Eleanor 
keenly enjoyed Ryder’s society. She was braced up by his 
active-mindedness ; she became interested in his plans, she 
went to the “Green Dragon,” and played many a time to the 
people assembled. 

When, however, he preached total abstinence to her she 
mocked, “ Of course I know spirit-drinking is abominable. 
We never thought anything of any one in Germany who drank 
Schnapps. But beer ! Really, Mr. Ryder, I think it is a 
shame to take away the people’s innocent happiness.” 

And Ryder would argue the matter hotly, and the argument 
was generally closed by Eleanor’s becoming a little cross. 


T BACCA QUEEN 285 

“ You are stupid to get into those arguments with Eleanor,” 
remarked Mary one day. 

But Eleanor’s crossness never lasted long; and when the 
fair weather arose again, she expected immediate interest in 
the concern over which she was at the moment enthusiastic. 

It seemed as if Ryder were Eleanor’s daily stand-by for 
pleasure and companionship, but Calthwaite was certainly her 
keen excitement. It was the thought of Prince Arthur that 
flushed her cheek. It was Prince Arthur she thought of in 
every poem she read, and in each love melody she played. 

And Mary knew this, and Ryder knew this, but not a word 
was said at The Abbey to influence the girl. 

But Catherine confided to her dear Harry the opinion that 
Mary was decidedly foolish. 

“You see, Harry, any one can see that Arthur Calthwaite is 
after the infant, and it is also plain to be seen that Ryder 
is over head and ears. Then why should Mary be so 
indifferent ? ” 

“ I don’t suppose, dear, they would wish in any way to try 
to catch Eleanor for the Glyn family. One has to remember 
the fortune.” 

“ Well, that’s what I think so stupid. Ruin a girl’s 
happiness all for the sake of some ridiculous scruple of 
that sort. Calthwaite is a perfect puppy. Now you can’t 
deny that, Harry ! ” 

“ He is a very charming man ! ” 

“ Rubbish ! To see the man in church — pretending to be 
so pious — ugh ! He is thoroughly taking that girl in. I like 
her better than I did ; and somehow it seems to me that some- 
body or other ought not to allow it.” 


CHAPTER XXXI 

Farbiggin was crowded for the Festival. The choirs, arriving 
in train loads from the surrounding villages of Moorshire, 
thronged the streets. Carriages paraded up and down the 


286 


T BA CCA QUEEN 


narrow thoroughfares, the restaurants were crowded to their 
utmost limit, and the Concert Hall was a scene of immense 
activity. The hard-working Committee exerted themselves 
remorselessly — or rather some did and some didn’t — and 
Catherine, Eleanor, Ryder, and Miss Calthwaite were amongst 
the number who did. And Arthur Calthwaite was amongst 
those who didn’t. 

Eleanor was wildly excited. She could hardly contain herself 
and her enthusiasm. It was so delicious to be bathed in 
music once more, and her choir were fairly satisfactory, and 
then she had high hopes for Nell. 

The solos were sung on the first morning of the Festival. 
The body of the hall was reserved for competitors, but the 
gallery seats were taken by the audience. These latter were 
crowded with people, and the gay ladies, all decked out in 
spring grandeur, largely predominated. For after all, if they 
did not understand the music, they could at least show their 
hats, and that was always something. County people were 
there in large numbers. This was an occasion on which they 
shone forth to show the Farbiggin people themselves and all 
their bravery. There were gentlefolks amongst them — intelli- 
gent, quiet, refined — but the great object of many seemed to be 
to illustrate, by their ill-bredness and want of usually accepted 
manners, that they were different from the ordinary gentlemen 
and gentlewomen who made no pretensions. 

What matter that the Bouncer party had only bought twelve 
tickets for fifteen people? Mrs. Bouncer and the Misses 
Bouncer expected the remaining three from somewhere. 

A certain smart young clerk from Glyn’s office, well 
instructed by the junior partner of that firm, had been 
installed as official door-keeper, and having had a breaking-in, 
in his rent-collecting experiences on the Scarth, he stuck to 
his guns gallantly, and finally caused the three extras of the 
Bouncer party to retire — thereby proving himself capable 
of winning a Victoria Cross should occasion arise ; but the 
three retiring Bouncers explained to each other, and any one 
within hearing distance, that whoever that young man was, 


T BACCA QUEEN 287 

he was both ill-bred and insolent ; and the big Miss Bouncer 
said to her cousin, the Hon. Algernon Neat by, that really she 
did not know what the Committee were doing to allow such 
things. 

But the Bouncer party had a further grievance, for having 
purchased their twelve tickets late, they were deeply hurt to 
find that the best places were occupied by those who had 
bought them in time — mere Nobodies — Farbiggin Nobodies 

“ Quite an absurd arrangement ! ” said Mrs. Bouncer very 
loud. 

“A beastly rotten one ! ” pronounced Miss Bouncer. So the 
nobodies in front, during the lengthened competitions, became 
quite used to the monotony of the expressions of the younger 
Somebodies behind. The atmosphere was “beastly.” That 
girl’s hat was a “ brute.” The recent lunch was “ rotten.” 
The judge’s tie was “ ripping,” and so on. But if you are 
Somebody, why not be ill-bred ? It is your right ! And if in 
London you would only touch the outside fringe of real 
society, why not show off in the country ? If you look high 
enough you will never encounter the smiles of the Nobodies 
as they note your ingenious exhibition. Only in a generation 
or two do not blame the trend of the age if the Nobodies — 
better educated and better mannered — persist, as the botany 
books express it. 

Maud, Polly, and Rob, resplendent in new white sailor hats, 
were in the front row, watching the animated scene in the hall 
with the keenest interest. As their mother, Uncle Ryder, and 
Maud were in a choir, they felt quite as if they belonged to 
the competition, and — joy of joys ! — their grandfather had 
presented them all with dress circle tickets for the concert on 
the following day. 

And Sir Matthew Preston was there, and Lady Preston and 
all their sallow-faced young daughters, the girls being further 
disguised in large mauve hats and orange flowers arranged in 
the height of the prevailing fashion. Sir Matthew did not 
care for music, but then he was the candidate, and all the 
country choirs were in attendance, and, besides, he was to 


288 


T BACCA QUEEN 

present the prizes at the concert; so he was affable and 
gracious, and hoped that he was making a good impression. 
Mrs. Bouncer was delightful to him. He was one of the few 
people whose heads she did not overlook. 

Eleanor, with a white rosette of office, was flitting about 
below, and when the moment for the treble solos came she 
took her seat under the gallery, and her heart palpitated 
ridiculously. 

Calthwaite, in spite of all there was to do, not finding 
anything exactly in his particular line, came strolling along, 
and, with a delighted smile, took his seat next to her. 

“ So your protege is coming on ? ” 

“Yes, and I’m frightfully excited ! ” 

“ What number ? ” 

“ She sings sixth ! ” 

“ That is a blessing ; then she can hear some of the others 
first, and get her pluck up.” 

“ Oh, Nell is not short of pluck ! ” 

“ Indeed ? ” 

As each of the five singers retired, Eleanor breathed more 
freely. No one had as yet appeared to dash her hopes to the 
ground. 

“ No. 6, Miss Carradus ! ” said some one in the gallery. 

“Very musical, isn’t she?” 

“Yes — been in Germany all her life. Why, that’s not Miss 
Carradus ! ” 

“ Programme wrong ! — that fiendish Committee again ! ” 
commented a spritely Miss Bouncer. 

Nell came quietly forward, tall, composed, and overpower- 
ingly handsome. 

The introductory bars of the selected piece, and then Nell 
began — 

“ Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe, I cry ! ” 

Instant attention all over the hall. The gallery stops its 
incessant rustling, the judge looks up from his memorandum 
book. 

Full and rich the notes came forth, simply and without the 


T BACCA QUEEN 289 

least effort, and, as Nell felt the space of the hall, her voice 
grew larger, rounder, more lissom. 

Eleanor sat breathless as each phrase, each intonation, each 
delicate turn rippled round the hall. There was just that 
simple yet ardent expression and rollicksome lightness that 
the piece required, and as Nell’s voice died away at the words 
of merry but earnest entreaty, “ Come and buy ! ” there was 
hardly a person in the hall who did not feel inclined to do it. 
Eleanor gave a great gasp of inward satisfaction, and Nell 
walked slowly off the platform without waiting for the round 
after round of applause that greeted her effort. Eleanor leaped 
to her feet. 

“ 1 must go to her ! ” 

She hurried away behind the platform, and found Nell 
standing amongst some of the other competitors. She dragged 
her hastily aside. 

“Nell, you angel! You were splendid — splendid! Oh, 
you must be first — you must, indeed ! You did not sound 
a bit nervous. Oh, I am so happy ! ” 

There was no doubt about the success. Miss N. Carradus 
was far ahead of the other competitors, and received a nice 
little compliment from the judge all to herself, and soon the 
Committee began to consult, with the result that Eleanor was 
deputed to ask Nell to sing the piece at the concert on the 
following day. 

“ Nell dear, such fun, and such an honour for us and the 
Scarth ! They want you to sing it again at the concert ! Oh, 
isn’t it lovely ! You must come back with me at once — there 
is nothing particular on just now — and we will tell Miss Glyn, 
anti try something over in case of an encore ! ” 

Nell could not help laughing at her teacher’s enthusiasm. 

“ Do you think I should?” 

“ Should what ? ” 

“Why, sing?” 

“Sing — why, of course!” and Eleanor opened her blue 
eyes to their greatest extent. “Why, my dear girl, it’s 
an immense honour ; and think what the Scarth will say ! 


2 9 0 T BACCA QUEEN 

Why, we shan’t mind if we fail altogether to-morrow with the 
choir ! ” 

Nell was in a dream. The joy of having felt her voice in 
the great hall, the knowledge that Calthwaite had witnessed 
her success, the congratulations of friends, the flattering 
request of the Committee and this cousin’s delight, seemed 
so unreal, so far removed from the life she knew. So when 
Eleanor pressed her further, she followed her with meekness, 
delivering herself over to fate, and together they told the 
delighted Mary of their success. 

“ I’ll tell you what we’ll have for an encore ! ” said Eleanor 
as they stood by Mary’s couch. “ We’ll have Miss Glyn’s 
song ! ” 

Mary laughed. “ Nonsense, Eleanor ! ” 

“ Oh no, it is not really nonsense — we will. It will be lovely; 
I am so glad I thought of it. It is quite new, and every one 
will be delighted— I know they will, and Nell takes that high 
1 C ’ so deliciously.” 

Mary often wrote poetry and songs for her own pleasure, 
and this particular one consisted of some words she had 
written expressing what she imagined Rubenstein meant when 
he wrote his popular Romanze in E flat. 

She had presented them with some amount of actual shyness 
to Eleanor one day, and Eleanor had been instantly charmed, 
and had promptly set to work to arrange the accompaniment, 
and she had already taught Nell the song. 

“ I’d like to sing Miss Mary’s song better than anything ! ” 
said Nell. “ I’d do my best not to spoil it ! ” 

“Well, dear, of course I should be delighted, and greatly 
honoured. Oh dear, it will make me want to go to the concert 
more than ever ! ” 

“ Happen I shan’t get an encore after all ! ” and Nell 
laughed. 

“ Of course you are bound to, with all the Scarth up in the 
back of the gallery ! ” laughed Eleanor. “ Come along, now — 
begin at once ! ” £>o together they practised until the excited 

teacher was satisfied. 


291 


V BACCA QUEEN 

" And, Nell, mind you put in plenty of expression — passion, 
if you like ; wail it out when the time comes. Forget every- 
thing — everything but the song ! ” 

“I suppose,” said Eleanor as Nell prepared to go — “I 
suppose it is all right about your frock. You don’t mind my 
asking, do you ? ” she added hastily ; “ only I thought perhaps 
I might lend ” 

Nell appreciated the kindly thought, and took the suggestion 
as it was meant. 

“ I’m all right, I think. My Aunt Janet gave me a frock 
for the Primrose Ball I suppose that will do?” 

“ Oh, that will be lovely ! ” 

“ I’ve gloves and everything ! ” said Nell, looking down at 
her hands. 

“ That’s all right, then ! ” said Eleanor. 

And before night it was all over the Scarth that Nell had 
won, and was going to sing at the Grand Concert. Hearty and 
characteristic congratulations came pouring in from every 
cottage, and there was a hurried rush for tickets for the night. 
As for the members of the choir, they were exultant that one 
of their number should have conquered, and were inspired 
to try and do more than their best, now that they had such a 
champion among them. The second day was one of terrible 
work for the Committee. Ryder especially, upon whom so 
much of the working arrangements concentrated themselves, 
was rushed from morning to night — had not, in fact, even time 
to dress for the concert. 

Calthwaite strolled round and elegantly surveyed the pro- 
ceedings in his usual gentlemanly manner, and noticed little 
matters which he decided to bring before the Committee 
another year. And Gertrude, who was apparently occupied 
the whole day in chasing the choir who had to sing next, 
lost patience with him altogether. 

The Scarth Choir had to compete in a class with new 
choirs and smaller village choirs only. The moment came 
at last for them to show what they and their conductor 
were made of. 


292 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ The right Miss Carradus at last,” said some one to 
Arthur Calthwaite, as Eleanor took up her position. 

“And there is that wonderful treble again,” passed from 
one to another. 

A round of applause greeted their rendering, and it was 
over. 

“ Well, Miss Carradus ? ” inquired Fleming, white with 
nervous anxiety. 

“ Very good — very good ! ” said Eleanor, but her brow was 
puckered. “ I hope it is all right. Attack, esprit^ and pitch 
were awfully good ; but tone Well, we shall see.” 

And Eleanor’s diagnosis was a correct one. The Scarth 
choir came out second, giving way before a small village 
choir which had competed in this class for several years. 

But, after all, they might have done w r orse, as they 
remarked to each other, and they were delighted with 
themselves. Catherine and Ryder and Maud cheered up 
the rest, and really they needed no cheering, but retired home 
to tell the news bursting with conceit and satisfaction. 

As for Polly and Rob, they could not express their satisfac- 
tion in sufficiently appropriate language, nor their contempt 
for the performance of the winning choir. 

“You’ll let me take you home after the concert, Nell?” 
asked Fleming, as they walked up the street after the 
competition. 

“ Eye, happen? ” she replied. 

“ I want to speak to you, Nell,” he said seriously. 

“ Well, speak ! ” 

“ Oh, not now, but perhaps to-night.” 

Nell blushed — actually blushed. 

“You’d best not speak to me, John Fleming; I’se nut 
worth your speaking to ! ” and she turned up the entry 
towards her Scarth home. 

Poor Fleming ! He was certainly suffering deeply at this 
time. His temporal affairs were prospering. His master, Mr. 
Fell, could not speak in high enough terms of his talent and 
aptitude for his business, and now, having learnt all that Mr. 


T BACCA QUEEN 293 

Fell could teach him, he was preparing to return to his own 
village to go forward by himself. 

He had made the most of the educational advantages of 
Farbiggin, and now held the highest South Kensington 
certificates for botany and allied sciences, and his excellent 
draughtsmanship made him the envy of his fellow-students 
at the Art School. 

He was bending his best energies to the production of new 
varieties in both plants and vegetables with considerable 
success, and his ambition was to enter into the cultured side 
of his business. In fact, young Fleming was considered by 
those who knew him to be a rising man, and, as his master 
remarked, if he had only had capital he might have made his 
fortune ; but, in any case, he was bound to make his name. 
Yet all this success was as nothing without Nell. He had 
worked so long for Nell ; had dreamed of Nell ; had accus- 
tomed himself to view his life entirely in relation to Nell ; 
had planned out his country life of practical and original 
work with Nell — racy, intelligent Nell — as his companion. 

He had disregarded all her disadvantages — courted her in 
misery — courted her in rags — courted her cross — courted her 
angry — courted her merry — had perceived the jewel in the 
rough, and felt that he deserved his reward. 

Probably he had been too self complaisant — too secure in 
his superiority. He had prided himself, without realising it, 
on his wonderful insight in choosing Nell. He felt himself 
her superior, had meant to lift her to his level, and had then 
meant that they should both rise together. 

And now it seemed hard. The position was changing 
daily. It was he himself now who seemed to be the poor 
one. He possessed the disadvantages, and Nell — his proud, 
beautiful Nell — was rising, rising away out of his sight. 

Oh, he was no fool. Nell was going night after night to 
The Abbey; she was learning manners and refinements. 
Why, even her very speech was different. And here 
she was being taken up by the Festival Committee; was 
mixing with ladies. And Nell was clever — oh, he knew that. 


294 T BACCA QUEEN 

He had reckoned on that when he chose her to rise with him ; 
and now Nell was evidently setting her mind far beyond a 
country florist — far beyond the home in the country amongst 
the flowers. 

It seemed he had been working for nothing. He must 
, begin all over again. Begin again ! The great pain clutched 
his heart, for he knew that he could never begin again. It 
was Nell — Nell he wanted, and only Nell. 

But, at any rate, he must know. He could not make her 
out. There was something on her mind — of that he was 
certain. In the old days she had been off and on playing 
with him, but he had known that, after all, he was the 
favourite. He had felt sure of his ground, though it might 
be rough and thorny. 

But now it was different. : She avoided him — definitely 
avoided him. She did not look him in the face; that was 
so unlike the old naughty Nell who laughed her insolent 
nonsense right into his very eyes. 

The ground was sinking indeed beneath his feet when 
Nell would not look him in the face. So as he was leaving 
Farbiggin he was determined that she should hear him. 


CHAPTER XXXII 

The Great Hall was packed from floor to ceiling, and the 
vast combined choirs rose tier upon tier at the back of the 
huge platform which had advanced far into the body of the 
ground floor. Everybody was there. The music went well. 
The hall grew hotter and hotter, but nobody seemed to mind 
at all. 

The industry of the choirs, and the devotedness of the 
choirmasters and mistresses down the length and breadth 
of Moorshire, showed itself most creditably in the spirited 
rendering of the various works and choruses ; whilst the 
combined orchestral societies, aided by a little outside 
professional talent, were a strong feature of the evening. 


T BACCA QUEEN 295 

Singers from London came down in all the glory of 
their names and their posters to lift the proceedings ; and, 
arrayed in their second-best clothes kept for the provinces, 
they looked around with kindly condescension as the local 
soloist, Miss N. Carradus, made her appearance. 

Nell and Eleanor came on together — Nell in the primrose 
and white, and Eleanor looking fair and golden in a simple 
black lace. 

The gallery greeted Nell’s appearance with tumultuous 
rapture, and below in the dress circle many faces looked up 
at the tall, well-built girl with surprise and admiration. 

Sir Matthew Preston, from his place beside his wife on the 
platform, shivered slightly, then pulled himself together and 
listened with the rest. “Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe 
I cry,” rang out the fresh, clear voice as it had done 
the previous day, only to-night there was an added confi- 
dence, a playful, dashing buoyancy which took the audience 
by storm. 

The eyes in the gallery gazed at the singer entranced. 
The Scarthsiders were preparing their hands to break into 
applause at the first possible moment : even the soloists turned 
sideways to survey the singer. 

Nell had her success — overwhelming, delightful, intoxi- 
cating ; and Eleanor’s eyes fairly danced with happiness as 
she followed her from the platform. 

“ You must go back, Nell — quick, go back ! Bow to them. 
No, don’t look fierce like that — smile. Quick, mind you 
smile ! ” 

Nell turned and did as she was told, and the audience 
clapped again louder than before ; and the gallery broke into 
shrill whistling and heavy stamping. 

Ryder appeared suddenly from the back. 

“Quick, Nell, go on again. Don’t waste time; give them 
an encore ; they won’t be satisfied without.” 

So Nell went quickly forward and sang Mary’s song. The 
words exactly followed the original air, and Eleanor’s accom- 
paniment but slightly modified Rubenstein’s arrangement 


296 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ Dead leaves are falling fast, 

And autumn winds are sighing, 

The sun is overcast 

And swallows south are flying. 

But O, my Love and I, 

What care we for the weather ? 

No storm can sweep the sky 
When we are both together ! 

While seasons come and go, 

While oceans ebb and flow. 

So long as day and night gladdest course shall run 
No other heart can know, 

No other heart can know. 

The love and power that binds our lives in one. 


*' Dread Winter fills the air, 

The stars are dim with weeping, 

The world is dark with care 

And Summer flowers are sleeping. 

But where, my Love, art thou? 

But where, my Love, art thou ? 

But where, my Love, art thou ? 

But where, my Love, art thou ? 

Lost, lost, lost, lost. 

My Love, my Darling, is gone, is gone, 

My Love, My Darling, is gone, is gone, 

Is gone, is gone for ever, 

Is gone, is gone for ever ; 

My Darling ! My Darling ! My Love is gone I ” 


Throughout the song Nell held the audience with her 
strong, subdued passion, and at the last “ Darling ” she lifted 
her voice to the high “ C ” with a consummate ease, which 
spread wonder over the faces of the people. It was a 
marvellous performance, and the audience showed clearly that 
they felt it to be so. 

Even as the last whisper reached the far gallery Nell turned, 
and turning she caught sight of Fleming up amongst the 
tenors, and she was suddenly shocked at his white, miserable 
face, and after she had answered again and again to the recalls, 
she took her place amongst the Scarth choir most unreason- 
ably perturbed. 

At the right moment Sir Matthew came forward, very self- 
possessed, to all outward appearances, to fulfil his office as 


T BACCA QUEEN 297 

prize distributor. His wife sat beside him, elegant, well 
dressed, and tired. 

Sir Matthew made the usual speech, congratulated the 
prize winners, consoled the losers by telling them that all 
could not win, complimented the Committee, thanked the 
subscribers, and glorified Moorshire. 

Nell of course received another wonderful ovation on 
receiving her prize. And no one but Sir Matthew on the 
platform, and Dr. Maddison in the audience, appreciated the 
consummate coolness of the girl as she took the prize and, 
pausing for a moment, looked the prize-giver quietly in 
the face. 

Eleanor, when she went up for the Scarth prize, found 
difficulty in controlling herself, and hurried across the platform 
in a manner almost undignified, quite disregarding the applause 
of the audience. 

As the crowded hall emptied itself into the street, it seemed 
quite impossible for any one to find any one else. But 
Calth waite managed to push up against Nell as she was 
struggling in the crush. He whispered something, and 
nodding she passed on with a curious expression on her face — 
half pleasure, half perplexity. 

Fleming did not seem to be at hand, so Nell argued that 
she had better go straight home; therefore, without looking 
round, she hurried off. 

“Good-night, Neil,” came the cheery voice of Dr. Maddison. 

Nell stopped a moment 

“Excellent, my dear, excellent, I must congratulate you. 
All the same, keep cool, Neil, keep cool ! ” 

Nell felt a trifle vexed. Why should Dr. Maddison think 
that she could not take care of herself. This was the second 
time he had warned her. 

“ Oh, I’m all right, Dr. Maddison,” she retorted, laughing. 
But there was not quite the old mirthfulness in the laugh. 

“ Are you ? Well, keep all right, Nell. Keep all right ! 
Good-night ! ” 

When she arrived home she found, as she expected, 


20 


298 T BACCA QUEEN 

that her mother was out, and the children were romping 
about noisily. 

She made short work with the children, for she was tired, 
and she therefore bundled them upstairs to bed in less than 
no time, regardless of their entreaties to examine her costume 
still more closely. She had hardly put out the bedroom 
candle, and returned to the kitchen, before there was a knock 
at the outer door. 

“ Come in ! ” she called, looking into the narrow passage. 

Fleming entered. 

“ Jack ! ” 

“ May I come in ? ” 

“ Why, eye ! ” 

He shut the outer door and came forward. 

“ Will you sit down, Nell ? ” 

He looked at her as she stood there, such a contrast of 
bright youthfulness in the dingy little kitchen. She looked up 
at him and laughed half nervously. 

“Why, what’s up?” 

“ It is I, Nell, who ought to ask you what is up ? ” 

“ What for ? ” 

“Do you mind sitting down, Nell dear?” 

He spoke quietly, almost dully. 

She sat down by the fire, and lifting her white gloves from 
the table began to smooth them out on her knee. Fleming 
sat down opposite her, and again quietly examined this 
glorified Nell. 

“ I want to talk to you, Nell. You need not speak unless 
you like. I want one last talk with you, to tell you what I 
have to tell you.” 

Nell did not look up, she merely continued her effort on the 
gloves. 

“ Of course, Nell, you know that I love you — love you with all 
my heart, with every bit of my nature, and to-night I want to ask 
you to be my wife — my wife ; you understand, Nell dear ? ” 
But the girl made no movement. “ You know, Nell, I can’t 
offer you wealth or station. I can offer you myself as I am. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


299 


I am getting on, Nell, and I will get on. At first we could 
have a little cottage near my work, and afterwards, dear, when 
I have made my way, we could move into a house I know — 
a house I have often looked at, outside the village. I always 
think of you and that house together. You could have all the 
roses you wanted there, Nell, you could be almost a lady ! ” 
Still the smoothing process continued on those white gloves. 
“ But to-night, dear Nell, I want you to promise to marry me, 
to promise to share my life — for better for worse — I have 
waited such a long time, Nell.” 

“You needn’t go on, Jack.” 

“But I shall, Nell. No, sit down!” for she half rose. 
“Sit down, you shall hear me. How dare you try to stop 
me ! ” but he rose himself. “ What have I done, Nell, that 
you should cast me off? Have I ever changed to you ? 
Haven’t I courted you, and worked for you? Have I ever 
bothered you, Nell? Have I not tried to please you in every 
possible way? Tell me, Nell, what is wrong? Why are you 
so different ? ” 

“ It’s no good. Oh, Jack, do shut up ! ” 

“ Nell dear, for God’s sake don’t play with me any more. 
Give me your answer. Let us settle it. Come, do ! ” He 
put his hand on her arm lightly, and if Nell had looked 
up then she might have been distressed at his face of awful 
anxiety. 

“ Oh, do go, Jack. It’s no good ! ” 

“Why is it no good, Nell?” He looked down at her. She 
was trembling, but her face was set. 

“ Nell ! ” he cried ; and there was a deep broken-heartedness 
in his tone. “Oh, Nell, there isn’t some one else?” 

“ And if there is ? ” she returned defiantly. 

He lifted his hand from her arm quickly, as if the warm, 
soft flesh beneath the delicate muslin burnt him. 

“Then, of course, it is over. Good-night, Nell. I have 
never forced myself on you yet, and I won’t do it now. 
Good-night!” He turned and left her. 

She leaped up as she heard the door close quietly behind 


300 


T BACCA QUEEN 

him. If he had seen the look of undecided misery on her 
face he might have returned. 

“Jack, Jack ! ” cried her heart, but her lips were sealed, and 
she sat down again. She took up the white gloves ; they were 
entirely ruined now — crushed to death. Nell threw them 
passionately into the fire. The joy of the evening’s success 
faded. She wished that Jack would not make such scenes. 
She hated making other people miserable. She had a perfect 
right to do as she liked. But Nell’s conscience allowed her 
no rest. “Traitor, traitor!” it whispered, and she tossed 
long and wearily before falling into her restless sleep. 

And poor Jack that night, in his little room over the shop, 
sobbed forth — 

“ It’s a judgment — a judgment on me. She’s not a Christian 

— at least But oh, my God, my God, I can’t give her up 

— I can’t. Give her to me, dear Lord. Oh, let me have her. 
O God, for the sake of all the love in Thy great heart, give 
me Nell ! ” 

It was not likely that Eleanor should sleep soundly that 
night. Her nerves were all tingling with the strain of the 
festival, and the magic of the music. Round and about her 
over-excited brain, the harmonies and the melodies in which 
she had lived and breathed for the past few days ran riot, and 
above all was the crowning sense that at last “ Die Liebe ” had 
found her. She was quite sure now that she had found die 
Liebe. 

Lover-like whispers, insinuating tenderness, almost caressing 
smiles had been her portion for long ; and during the last two 
days, through all her activities, through all her agitations, she 
had been conscious of her handsome Prince Arthur, so ready 
with his attentions, so active on her behalf, so pleased with her 
success. 

And to-night he had spoken nothing very definite, but 
enough ; and she could not now be mistaken. Die Liebe 
had come, and she was happy. Oh, it was all too exciting. 
No wonder she could not sleep. And the great Mother Moon, 
ascending high behind the old castle ruins up into the starlit 


3°i 


T BACCA QUEEN 

sky, smiled down kindly upon the figure in the bright, warm 
dressing-gown, nestling into the wide window-seat. And the 
glamour was over all. 

And the fourth person who could not sleep that night was 
one to whom die Liebe had indeed come with force and 
strong pain ; but there was no glamour, no magic, no hap- 
piness ; only a dull, helpless sense of misunderstanding, 
failure, and mortification. So Ryder Glyn also watched the 
moon ; and she mocked him with a placid coldness, so he 
drew his curtains to hide her impudent face. 


CHAPTER XXXIII 

When on the night of the concert Calthwaite had whispered 
to Nell the words, “Windy Scar,” he had hardly made up his 
mind what he really intended to do. It annoyed him to find 
himself in the dilemma of wanting two things at the same time, 
the possession of either of which might ruin his chances for 
the other. 

Calthwaite passed for an easy-going, shallow-hearted man, 
but the fact was that underneath his apparent easy-goingness 
there w r as a strong undercurrent of dogged self-will. 

Calthwaite was better described as temporary-hearted, for 
there was no shallowness in his determination to get what he 
wanted. What he desired he desired intensely, though the 
wish lasted but for one hour, and it was difficult to guess from 
his gracious, flattering manner what a depth of selfishness lay 
hidden below the surface. 

From his earliest years Calthwaite had considered life from 
the point of view of his own comfort and pleasure. He never 
denied himself anything he could comfortably obtain, and even 
his own inveterate laziness and self-indulgence gave way before 
a strong desire. 

There was no doubt that he liked Eleanor extremely. She 
thoroughly amused him, not only by her own irrepressible 


302 


T BACCA QUEEN 


vivacity, but by her evident enjoyment of his attentions. And 
of course she possessed ^100,000. 

Now though he himself wanted for nothing, and his mother’s 
abundant income was at his free disposal, he felt that it would 
be a great advantage to marry money. 

It has been well said that selfishness is merely cruelty asleep, 
and when Calthwaite, sitting in the stalls at the concert, again 
beheld Nell in her glory, he boldly satisfied his eyes with her 
beauty, and felt himself personally gratified by her abundant 
success. It was impossible to resist the long habit of years to 
reach out his hand for what he wanted ; so, though Eleanor 
was seated in full view at the piano, though he looked with an 
almost proprietary glance at her eager, piquant face, all radiant 
with smiles over her cousin’s success, yet, that night, it was 
Nell whom Calthwaite desired to conquer — Nell in her fresh, 
buoyant beauty, who called up the stormy desire in his heart. 
He was charmed with the girl. Why should he not enjoy her ? 
A walk with Nell would be worth having, and after all she was 
but a tobacco girl. 

He was determined to settle down properly some time with 
Eleanor, but it would amuse him to have a final fling, and the 
future could take care of itself. Life had never dared to be 
hard on him yet, and as far as the girl was concerned she must 
take her chance. Besides, he had not forgotten Nell’s first 
insolent manner towards him. He was gratified that apparently 
she was now taking him seriously ; for she had shown in the 
sundry encounters he had had from time to time with her that 
she was not oblivious to his attentions. 

A certain spice of pure revenge entered into his reasoning, 
so he had whispered “Windy Scar” to Nell, and was almost 
surprised at his own easy success when Nell bestowed upon 
him her answering nod. 

Windy Scar is the place of all others for the sunset glories. 
It is a joy to walk up over the fell and breathe in the breezy 
air, and walk on and on over the loose, musical limestones, as 
if the goal were the very glowing sky itself. Then there comes 
the sudden pause, the astonishing, entrancing break, as the fell 


T BACCA QUEEN 303 

descends in a mighty scar some hundreds of feet in depth. 
Far below lie the hazel woods and pheasant covers, and the 
wide level peat mosses with their black patches of piled-up 
peats, and turfy land, and narrow ditches which the sun tracks 
out in lines of sparkling light. To the left in the far distance 
lie the yellow sands with their traces of silvery water, and to the 
right and far in front the everlasting hills. The peaceful, calm, 
lonely heights looking down into the darkening valleys from 
their sun-tipped summits. 

And on such an evening Calthwaite and Nell wandered 
along over the short turf and the singing stones. 

Equal in height, the dark, intense-looking girl and the fair, 
nonchalant gentleman made an interesting couple. 

Nell was excited. It was pure excitement that had brought 
her — determined, dogged excitement. A desire to know had 
seized her — an overpowering yearning to take of the fruit of 
the tree. She wanted to see what this gentleman meant, 
to risk something for the mere joy of the risk. 

Her recent successes were taking effect. Nell was no longer 
the old Nell. She felt confident that her beauty, her voice, 
her very self had conquered — that she, Nell Carradus, was a 
real queen — was able to subdue a kingdom — that others beside 
’bacca lads and florists were ready to lie at her feet. She felt 
she could draw back any moment. There was no danger to 
her. She would like to try. 

So here she was out on the lonely fell with her lover. This 
time a real gentleman — one who had chosen Nell Carradus 
as his companion from amongst all the women of his 
acquaintance. 

This afternoon there was none of the nervousness which 
beset the old Nell that day after the Ottarthwaite school treat. 
She was confident that she had caught a glimpse inside the 
magic doors of society, and that the lover at her side was to 
be her guide further into the entrancing world. 

Calthwaite knew his power well. He treated the girl with 
his most deferential courtesy, put out his hand to help her 
over the rough places, aided her through the narrow Moor- 


304 V BACCA QUEEN 

shire stiles, listened as she talked, and flattered her by his 
whole manner. 

“ It was so very good of you to come this afternoon, Miss 
Nell!” 

“Was it?” 

“ Oh, yes. It is not many girls who would take so much 
trouble for me, and after your great success too. Miss Nell, 
I really must tell you that you were superb — magnificent. 
Every one was charmed, and I was so proud — oh, so proud 
of my beautiful Nell ! ” 

He pressed her arm tentatively, and the glamour was in his 
voice and the glamour was in his eyes, and Nell wondered — 
wondered. 

“ I’m not a lady ! ” 

“You could be anything you chose, Nell ! ” 

His voice was very seductive, and Nell, remembering the 
recent past, believed him. 

“ Do you really think so ? ” She looked up into his face, 
and her eyes shone with an almost pathetic beauty. 

“I tell you, Miss Nell, if you gave yourself up to me — to 
my love — I would shield you and care for you, and you should 
be all my own. You should want for nothing — nothing, Miss 
Nell. Why, with a voice like yours you might have the world 
at your feet. Let me share the delight of your triumph ? I 
will give you all the training you need. I will help you and 
pay for you ” 

Nell tried to interrupt him at the last word. Her inde- 
pendence rose. 

“Nonsense, Nell, dear. I am a great deal older than you. 
Of course I should pay for you, and we will have no more 
tobacco factories, no more hard work — nothing but music and 
happiness, and you shall be my own beautiful queen. Why, 
Nell, the whole country-side is talking of your beauty and 
your voice ! ” 

“ I thought that you were courtin’ my cousin Eleanor.” 

“ Courting the girl who wronged you ? ” At the moment 
Calthwaite threw Eleanor far back into oblivion. “ Why, 


T BACCA QUEEN 


305 


Nell, as far as I can judge it is this very Miss Eleanor who 
has benefited by your grievous misfortunes. She may have 
the miserable gold — be a partaker in this gigantic injustice, 
but really, Nell, could you imagine yourself and Miss Eleanor 
on the same platform ? So Nell is jealous, is she?” 

Again he looked down earnestly at his companion’s 
glowing cheeks. Nell walked forward silently. Could he 
really mean 

“You see, Nell dear, I only want to know if you love me — 
really love me with all your heart, as I love you ! Love me 
enough to throw your life in with mine — to be mine alone ! 
Will you come to me, dear ? Don’t disappoint me ! ” 

His voice was low and had a peculiarly soft richness. 

How lovely the evening was ! They were nearing the edge 
of the Scar, and the sun was still well above the horizon. 

“ I don’t know what you mean,” was Nell’s subdued answer. 

“ Oh yes, dear, you do ! I mean what I say. Give me 
your love as you have mine.” 

Nell’s breath came quickly and pantingly. Again she 
questioned within herself what this man really meant. 

“ You know I have loved you ever since I first saw 
you ! ” 

Calthwaite had now become so absorbed with his immediate 
desire that every thought but that of gaining his present wish 
had fled from him. 

“ Have you?” 

“You know I have. Why, my darling, how could I help 
it ? You are the most beautiful woman in all Moorshire ! ” 

Nell looked up at her companion critically. 

“ Still afraid ? ” Again the perilously tender voice. 

Nell was silent, but she looked at him with eyes full of a 
strange light. Distrust was fast ebbing away. Surely, surely, 
if truth were ever spoken in this world it was being spoken to 
her now. 

He saw acquiescence in her face, and he took his advantage 
instantly, triumphantly. 

“ Now, Nell — now you are mine ! ” and he looked at her 


306 T BACCA QUEEN 

with eyes aflame with strong desire, and gathered her into 
his arms. 

“ Let us sit down, dear,” he said softly. 

He led her to the sloping bank of short turf, from which 
they could look down on to the little wood that came creeping 
up the face of the Scar. 

Then it was true — quite true. It was not a dream. She, 
Nell Carradus of the Scarth, was after all going to marry a 
gentleman. 

As for Calthwaite, he thought that he had won more easily 
than he could have dared to hope. 

“ Well, she shall not lose by me,” he thought ; “ I will do 
well by her.” 

“ You know, Nell dear, this is a little secret between us. I 
trust you and you trust me. Fate meant us for each other, 
so we must follow her, must we not?” 

“ Do you mean that you want to be wed at once ? ” 

“ Ah ! well, we need not worry about weddings yet ; it is 
early days. The great thing to think of now is that we love 
each other, you and I. Look Nell ! ” and he drew from his 
waistcoat pocket a sparkling diamond ring. “I have it all 
ready, you see,” and he took her hand and placed it on her 
wedding finger. “ Now you cannot escape. You are mine — 
mine,” and he pressed her passionately to him. 

Nell did not draw back from the embrace, she was con- 
sumed with the wonder of it. She looked down at the ring. 
She had never dreamed of such a treasure. Yet there it was 
sparkling on her own hand. 

“ This will be somethin’ to show Miss Mary and my cousin 
Eleanor,” she said, with a shy laugh. 

Calthwaite started. “Now, Nell,” he said seriously, “you 
are mine now, and you must do exactly as I tell you. I 
cannot have our little secret told. I shall be angry, really 
angry with you, my darling, if you let out our secret.” 

The least touch of control always put Nell on her 
mettle. 

“ But Eleanor has done a deal for me, and she’d be glad to 


r BACCA QUEEN 307 

know as you are goin’ to marry me. She’ll be glad as I’se 
goin’ to be a lady ! ” 

“Yes, yes, my sweet; but all the same I don’t want it 
known just yet. I have not made my arrangements — do you 
understand ? ” 

Calthwaite was alarmed. He seemed to have gone too far. 
It was all very well to make this girl think he was going to 
marry her in order to gain his temporary pleasure, but there 
was a reasonableness in things. He must not have her pro- 
claiming throughout the Scarth that he was going to marry her. 
The idea was preposterous. 

He had thought it would be quite easy to explain to the girl 
what he meant. He had, in fact, imagined that she would 
have understood intuitively. She could never really imagine 
that he actually intended marriage. Yet now, face to face with 
her on the Scar, he felt it extremely difficult to put the position 
in a reasonable light. 

In the quiet, bewildered Nell before him, seated so happily 
on the grass admiring the ring he had given her, there was 
little to distinguish her from any lady of his own circle. That 
very style and pose which had at first attracted him was now 
in evidence as a barrier to his present explanation. 

Calthwaite found himself seized with sudden diffidence. 
The wild idea passed again through his mind about King 
Cophetua and the beggar maid. Why not ? But he cast it 
aside with inward ridicule. She must be content with what 
many another woman has been content with. But how was 
he to put it reasonably to Nell? That was the point. 

She laid her hand on his knee with her old caressing charm. 

“You do really mean it all, Mr. Calthwaite? You are not 
takin’ me in ? ” 

How could he lie in her pure face ? How could he with- 
stand her womanly power ? 

“ Nell, Nell, my darling, what do you mean ? ” 

She looked at him earnestly. Something in his voice 
sobered her. 

“ I mean you are treatin’ me as you would treat a lady ? ” 


308 T BACCA QUEEN 

Again Nell brought out the ambitious word — the pathetic 
climax of all her hopes. 

“ My darling, to-night we are only thinking of love — love. 
What is social position when there is love ? ” 

She gave a sigh of relief. It seemed to be all right. He was 
playing fair. Still, she made one more effort after certainty. 

“ Promise me marriage, Mr. Calthwaite ! Here is my 
hand ! ” She put out her work-worn hand with the air of a 
princess. 

Calthwaite hesitated. He had some faint feeling against 
absolutely perjuring himself in so many words. He really 
must explain. Why on earth did not the girl see without all 
this fuss ? 

He took her hand between his, gently, and smiled into her 
eyes. 

“ We can discuss marriage any time, dear. Let us think of 
the present happiness. People can be very happy together 
without marriage.” He looked at her calmly, watching the 
effect of his words. But Nell drew back. 

“ But you don’t mean by that, that ” 

“ I mean, dearest, that — surely you understand what I 
mean ? — what I want, my darling ? Come, don’t look like 
that ! Why, what’s the matter ? ” 

“Do you mean that you want Nell Carradus without 
marriage ? ” 

“ Nell, dear, really you are extremely troublesome ! ” he said 
reproachfully ; and he tried to make his voice sound playful. 
“ It hurts me to see you so suspicious. I don’t believe you 
love me at all ! ” 

But Nell knew now — knew all there was to know. Like a 
storm the wild remembrances rushed upon her — remembrances 
of others who had trusted half promises, others who had 
dreamed of bliss, and awaked in anguish. Even as she sat 
here the vision of Jane Ann Martin, wild and agonised, rose 
before her view. The ground seemed to sink away beneath 
her. Her head swam. She staggered from the ground. Calth- 
waite rose with her, knowing that the battle had come. 


V BACCA QUEEN 309 

“ Arthur Calth waite, look at me ! In the light of yon sun 
swear that you’ll wed me ! ” 

He looked at her and smiled condescendingly — patiently 
as if he were tired of the subject; as if she were a petted child. 

The smile irritated her to madness. With a bound she 
turned into Nell of the Scarth. 

“ Then by God and the divil, ger oot o’ my seet !” she cried. 
“ I’se done with tha ! ” 

“ Nell ! Nell ! ” He rushed at her and seized her by the 
shoulder. “ Nell Carradus, what do you mean ? You are 
mine — mine. You have promised yourself to me!” And 
he planted a long, passionate kiss on her cheek with an 
almost savage strength. 

Nell leaped back to the extreme edge of the Scar. 

“You dare!” she cried. “I’se leap ower Scar rather than let 
tha tooch ma, thoo sneakin’ villin ! ” 

There she stood clearly outlined against the sky — Beauty 
infuriate. He looked at her in undisguised admiration. 

“ Nell ! Nell ! ” he cried appealingly. “ Remember you are 
mine. Remember the ring ! ’ 

She had forgotten the ring for the moment. Quick as 
thought she drew it from her finger, and threw it with all her 
force into his face. It cut his cheek deeply ; and the blood 
spouted forth. 

“Theer!” she mocked. “Noo thoo’s getten enough. 
Thoo’ll remember t’ ’Bacca Queen for life noo, Arthur Calth- 
waite.” 

Suddenly she started and listened attentively. Calthwaite 
stooped and picked up the ring. Then he carefully put his 
handkerchief to his cheek, and advanced calmly towards her. 

“Be off!” she stormed. “Be off! Theer’s folk cornin’ 
oop t’ Scar from t’ wood ! ” 

Calthwaite could not control a scared look crossing his face 
as he turned on his heel and walked quickly away. 

She threw after him a mocking laugh ; and then reseated 
herself, and watched as her sometime lover strode over the 
fell until he was hidden from view by a dip in the ground. 


3 10 


T BACCA QUEEN 


CHAPTER XXXIV 

The voices in the wood sounded clearer. Happy children’s 
voices they seemed to be. 

“ Be quick, Rob ! Don’t dawdle so, or we shall have 
brought Miss Carradus all the way for nothing. The sun is 
nearly gone ! ” 

“ Polly, what a fidget you are ! Why, he’s at least two inches 
off the top of the hill yet ! ” 

Nell sat quite still trying with all her might to control her- 
self. She was literally shaking with suppressed excitement. 
The blood was galloping through every pulse, her temples 
were throbbing madly, yet her cheeks were colourless. 

There was more laughing — more sound of scrambling feet 
and falling stones, and then she heard Eleanor say cheerfully : 
“ Come along ! Why, I am a far better climber than you 
two ! ” And in another moment she appeared with the two 
girls following her up the little rocky path that struggled 
upwards from the wood below. 

“ Why, Nell, you here ! ” exclaimed Eleanor in astonish- 
ment. 

Nell rose. “ T’ sun’s grand ! ” 

“Yes, we have come all the way to wish him good-night. 
The children brought me a round-about way by the road. 
They thought it would be more fun to come up the Scar. It 
has been a scramble.” 

“ It’s awfully jolly now we are here ! ” said Rob, flinging her- 
self down on the ground in order that she might pant with 
more comfort, and she removed her hat to let the wind play 
with her tumbled hair. Polly followed her example, and 
exclaimed in a dogmatic manner, “ Now, Miss Carradus, you 
cannot say that you have ever seen anything more glorious 
even in Germany ! ” 

Eleanor laughed. “ I knew you would ask that ! I was 
certain you would want me to confess to your wonderful 
English superiority. I call it distinctly dishonourable to press 


T BACCA QUEEN 31 1 

the point when I am in such a hopeless minority. Even Nell 
here will be on your side in upholding Moorshire beauties. 
Not but what I am the only person present really competent 
to give an opinion, for I alone have seen both countries ! ” 

She looked up at Nell laughingly and doing so she noticed 
the white, excited face. 

“Why, Nell, dear, what is it? What is the matter?” 

“ Oh, now’t particular ! ” 

“ Nonsense, Nell, you can’t take me in, you know ! ” 

But Nell turned her head away resolutely and studied the 
view. Eleanor sat down for a few minutes and kept up a 
lively but rather random chatter with Polly and Rob until the 
sun descended Rob’s two inches, and was lost to Moorshire 
for another night. 

“ If you two would not mind running on in front,” said 
Eleanor suggestively, “then I could talk to Nell !” 

“You mean you want a little private conversation?” asked 
Polly. 

“ Well, you know two is company, and if you don’t 
mind ? ” 

“ Oh, we are not at all offended, are we, Rob ? We know 
about grown-up people wanting private conversations. We 
are quite used to being shut out of the room when mother 
wants to talk to Aunty Mary.” 

“ I never can imagine what they find to say in their con- 
fabulations,” commented Rob. 

“ Oh, well, come along. Stick on your hat, Rob ! ” and 
away they ran over the fell in the direction of Farbiggin. 

“ Now, Nell ! ” said Eleanor. “ We must be quick, or we 
shall lose sight of those terrible children.” 

Nell turned. She must get home somehow. She might as 
well take advantage of the present company. 

“ Well, what is it ? ” 

“ Nowt ! ” 

“ Don’t lie, Nell. I’m your cousin. You had better say it 
out ! ” 

“ I kna as you are my cousin, but you’re nobbut a bit of a 


312 T BACCA QUEEN 

lass. You kna nowt aboot what bothers workin’ lasses like 
me ! ” 

Eleanor had not heard Nell talk in her own dialect for some 
long time, and she was puzzled. 

“ I’m nearly two years older than you anyhow,” she de- 
clared. The idea of her own incompetence amused her. 
“Come now, don’t be grumpy.” 

“ Happen you are ! But then you’re a lady — you hev your 
awn fortune. You can’t understand such things as comes to 
such as me ! ” 

“ I can understand far more than you think, Nell ! " 

And before her companion could stop her she took her arm. 
She was shocked at the girl’s appearance, and seeking about 
hastily in her own mind for the best way of bringing her com- 
fort, it struck her that a little confidence on her own part 
might lead to something from Nell. 

“ bisten, Nell. Perhaps I know far more than you think,” 
and as they walked together Eleanor narrated to Nell some of 
her own German experiences, admitted her share of troubles, 
described her distresses, her sorrows, her loneliness, her poverty. 
“ Why, Nell, do you know my mother and I nearly starved, 
and your grandfather never sent his son a penny.” 

This was news to Nell, and she began to regard this 
cheerful little well-dressed figure at her side in a new light. 

“Is it a money trouble, Nell? That is a trouble I under- 
stand right down to the very bottom. You know I am quite, 
quite determined to help you if you will let me. You cannot 
consider the way things are arranged a greater shame than I 
do.” 

“ I don’t want your brass ! ” 

“ Don’t you ? Then tell me what the trouble is. Can I 
help you in some other way — there must be something wrong. 
I’ve never seen you look like you look to-night in my life.” 

“ Well, any road it’s not brass ! ” 

Eleanor waited patiently. 

“ It’s naa use. You can’t understand — you lile lady lass ! 
You were niver courted and tricked, and med to feel as if you 


T DACCA QUEEN 313 

were a bit o’ wasted womankind as any man as hed a mind 
might pick oop and fling intull t’ muck ! ” 

Nell stalked on proudly. She had admitted a good deal. 

“ But who ” 

“ Niver heed wha, curse him ! Oh, I’se be even wi’ him yet. 
To coom to me — and mek me — me — Nell Carradus — believe 
him — think as he loved ma. I might ha knawn ! It’s not for 
want o’ seein’ plenty o’ sic wark. Eh, fool — silly fool as thoo 
is, Nell Carradus ! ” She stamped the ground in her intense 
mortification. 

“ Do you kna what it is to dream silly, daft things — to think 
as God meant you for summat grand ? You were niver saa 
daft happen as to believe what a leein’ tongue telt ya. Eh, thoo 
fool, fool — Nell Carradus. Theer niver was sic a fool as thee! 
I’se spoiled his beauty for him any road for a bit. I cut his 
cheek oppen wi’ his awn diamond ring! That’s summat to 
think ower ! ” 

“ But I don’t understand ” 

“ Of course you don’t understand ! ” Nell spoke in an 
almost compassionate tone. “ I telt you, you couldn’t under- 
stand sic wark. When a man comes courtin’ you, he’ll mention 
t’ weddin’ t’ saam time as he offers himsell !” 

“I see now,” said Eleanor sorrowfully. “You need not 
tell me any more. Oh, Nell, what an awful shame ! You are 
right — I cannot help you in the very least in a trouble like that !” 

The two walked on silently. Nell was comforted by the 
kindly companionship — perhaps a little gratified that Eleanor 
should thus insist on the cousinship. 

Eleanor was thinking of the happiness that had come into 
her own life. It seemed so hard that she should have so much 
and this girl at her side so little, and her heart went out in 
warm pity. Nell had indeed had a hard, weary struggle 
against circumstance. Eleanor had grown very fond of 
Nell. She appreciated her character, and during the prac- 
tising visits it was impossible not to be gratified by Nell’s 
rapturous enjoyment of her own music. She would sit for 
long spells at a time enjoying Eleanor’s fascinating playing. 

21 


3 1 4 


T BACCA OUEEN 


The wonder of Eleanor’s music was, in fact, one of the things 
that had drawn the jealousy and the suspicion out of Nell’s 
heart. She could not hate as she had intended — the music 
had been the peacemaker. They had left the western view 
behind, and the town of Farbiggin now lay before them in the 
valley below — a short distance and they would leave the fell 
and descend by the rough stony lane that led to the main road. 
Rob and Polly could be seen just in front, seated one on each 
side of the upright gap in the wall that served as a stile in 
Moorshire. 

“ Nell, dear, I am going home with you to-night ! ” 

“You can’t ! ” 

“ Oh yes, I can. Now you must not stop me. I have 
dreamed long enough, I must see for myself how you live. 
I want to share a little bit of your life.” 

“ Private finished ? ” cried Rob from her uplifted position. 

“ Guess whom we have seen ! ” cried Polly. 

“ I have never guessed anything in my life,” returned 
Eleanor brightly. It was a relief to both girls to turn to 
the children’s chatter. 

“ Well, we’ve seen Mr. Arthur Calthwaite ! He was away in 
front — oh, a long way, but we knew him ! ” 

“ How could you ? ” said Eleanor incredulously. 

“ Why, we knew him by his dandy suit ! You can tell Mr. 
Calthwaite a very long way off by his get up.” 

“ Polly ! ” said Eleanor sharply. 

“Well, we can. You can’t deny it. You would have 
known him yourself! I suppose he has been out for an 
airing to see the sunset, too ! ” 

Eleanor started at the innocent words, and looked hastily at 
Nell. A thought came into her mind which seemed to strangle 
her. And as she looked the tell-tale blood was rising high in 
Nell’s cheeks, and as the colour deepened in the one girl’s face 
it left that of the other. Eleanor half staggered. 

“ Why, Miss Carradus ! ” said Polly, looking at her atten- 
tively, “have you hurt yourself? You are as white as my 
handkerchief ! ” 


T BACCA QUEEN 


3 r 5 


“ I must have slipped,” said Eleanor lightly. 

“ There’s no stone or anything,” said Rob, searching the 
ground with her eyes. “ Did you twist your ankle ?” 

“ Oh, what questions you girls do ask ! ” cried Eleanor 
irritably. 

Nell had so far been engaged in seeking to hide her own 
confusion, but as she now looked at her companion she became 
aware that something was amiss. 

“ If I were you, Miss Polly and Miss Rob, I’d run off home 
now. Miss Carradus says as she’s going to step round by our 
house ! ” 

Polly drew herself up deeply offended. 

“ Yes, that will be the best,” said Eleanor. “ Don’t wait, 
there’s good children!” 

Polly and Rob slipped off the wall and took the broad hint 
without another word. 

“Well I never ! ” said Polly. 

“ What a cross, rude thing she is ! ” 

“ If we had known we would not have come.” 

“ Of course not ! ” agreed Rob.” 

But when the girls were well out of sight Eleanor turned to 
Nell. “ He was not the one you were speaking of? ” 

There was deep anxiety in her face, her eyes looked with 
the expression of some dumb, wounded animal, and Nell’s 
motherly heart awakened and she would have given a great 
deal to be able to lie freely. Instead she made no reply 
at all, but walked onward. « 

“ Nell, you must tell me. Stop ! ” 

“ Well, if you must kna ! Aye, it was him as hes joost left 

» 

ma. 

Never a word in reply made Eleanor, but she swayed a little 
as she walked. 

Nell took her arm, and they walked on in silence until they 
reached the main road. 

“ You’d best let me take you reet home.” 

“ No, I’m going with you.” 

“ I wouldn’t to-neet ! ” 


316 T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Yes, I shall — I’ve dreamed long enough. It seems that 
we have both dreamed the same dream, you and I, Nell.” 
She put her hand across her eyes as if to brush away the 
mist. “ But I can’t think just now — I must do — do. So 
let me come with you. If I think, I shall go mad ! ” 

Nell’s nursing instincts helped her to realise that it was best 
to give way, so together they passed down the Scarth — Scarth- 
siders watching them as they passed, and wondered what was 
up. It was the first time that Eleanor had threaded her way 
through the winding yards, and she was amazed and disgusted 
at much she saw. 

“ I’d best ga in a minnut t’ first ! ” said Nell. She was afraid 
that her mother might possibly be in, though she knew it was 
her usual habit to be out at this hour. 

“ I don’t want my mother to see you. You’d best gaa if 
she’s in.” 

Eleanor looked up at the dingy dwelling. It was worse than 
her liveliest imagination. The three children were playing on 
the doorstep, grubby but contented. 

“ Mudder’s inside ! ” remarked Bobbie. “ She’s asleep ! ” 

Nell pushed the children aside and entered the room. In a 
corner, reclining in the armchair, Maria sat with her head 
thrown back, apparently in a drunken sleep. Nell gave a 
swift glance and then returned. 

“You’d best not come in. She’s asleep, but she might 
waken any time.” 

“Just let me take one look,” Eleanor urged. She hardly 
knew herself to-night. She felt so strangely insistent in the 
matter. Something had struck so cold to her heart. Anything 
to keep her from thinking. * 

“Well, one look, then. One look ’ull be enough!” said 
!Nell scornfully. 

Eleanor entered and glanced round the kitchen. It looked 
better and more comfortable and homelike inside than out. 
There was an air of careful thought about the arrangements. 
Evidently Nell had impressed herself on the place. Only the 
sleeping woman in the corner spoiled the little home. 


3*7 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“ How white she is ! ” whispered Eleanor. Then her eyes 
filled with horror as, taking a step forward, she gasped : “ Nell ! 
Nell ! I do believe she’s dead ! ” 

Nell rushed to her mother’s side and placed her hand on her 
forehead. She lifted it hastily with a start. 

“Oh, my God!” 

Both girls stood staring with wide-open eyes, entranced, before 
the ghastly figure. The eyes were shut, but the mouth was 
half open, and the whole appearance of broken humanity was 
awestriking enough. Drink and vice had finished at last with 
Maria Carradus — the worst had come. 

“ I wonder if t’ divil’s satisfied t’ last ? ” muttered Nell, yet 
her eyes filled with tears. 

Eleanor put her hand on her shoulder. “Oh, you poor, 
poor child ! Oh, I never knew — I never thought she was like 
— like that ! ” 

Nell gave one gasping sob — then she recovered herself. 
There was something to do. She turned quickly and went to 
the door. 

“ Bobbie, my lad, run off to Dr. Maddison’s, and exe him to 
coom as fast as iver he can. Tell him as theer’s summut wrang 
wi’ thy mother. And thee, Martha, run off tull Aunt Janet’s 
and tell her as Nell ’ull thank her kindly if she’ll step round a 
minnut for somethin’ particular.” 

“ Shall I say as moother’s badly ? ” 

“ Eye, if thoo’s a mind, only baith on ya mun be sharp. 
Polly, my lass, thoo can gaa wi’ Martha. Thoo shall hev a cake 
if thoo’s a good lass afore thoo gaa’s to bed, nobbut thoo bides 
oot for a bit and meks naa bother ! ” 

Nell had a quick, executive mind. 

“ You’d best go ! ” she remarked to Eleanor quietly. 

“Perhaps I had — but you’ll let me know if I can help you?” 

“ Aye, happen ! ” 

“ I suppose it was the drink,” said Eleanor, as she took a 
last horrified look at the bloated, abandoned woman. 

“Drink and t’ Wild Boar Inn and other things beside,” 
returned Nell. 


318 T BACCA QUEEN 

“And nothing could be done?” 

“ T’ divil’s stronger nor a woman ! ” Nell spoke almost 
sharply. “And as for t’ ‘Wild Boar,’ why, it’s your awn 
hoose ! ” 

Eleanor hardly took in the reply just then; she had had 
enough. Nell was right — she had better get away. The two 
pair of mournful eyes faced each other silently, but there was 
still something that Eleanor wanted. 

“ May I kiss you, Nell ?” 

She did not wait for a reply, but flinging her arms impulsively 
round her cousin’s neck, she kissed again and again that proud 
cheek, and as Nell felt the pure warm lips it seemed to her as 
though this cousin of hers had kissed away in some part the 
deep humiliation of an hour ago. 

Eleanor slipped away, and, as the door closed Nell was 
alone with her dead. For a few moments she could only 
stand mechanically counting the beats of her own thumping 
heart. Then she went softly up to the corpse and knelt 
down. 

“ Mother, mother,” she sobbed, “ I’se cursed tha many a 
time — I didn’t kna. Noo I kna for mysell. I niver kent 
afore reetly what happened to tha ! I’d niver, niver ha blaamed 
tha sa hard — it’s him, him as first ruined tha, as took thy life 
from tha — it’s him as wants cursin’. And thoo was aulus saa 
prood o’ thi lass, mother.” Then, as she heard the latch rattle, 
she kissed the dead woman, and, leaping to her feet, the old 
hard look returned. 


CHAPTER XXXV 

It was the custom at The Abbey during the spring and summer 
months to substitute late supper for the usual dinner, but when 
Eleanor arrived this meal was already over, and Mary was 
established in the drawing-room, whilst Ryder was busily 
writing by the lamplight in a corner of the room. 

“ Well, dear ! ” exclaimed Mary, “ I was afraid those children 


T BACCA QUEEN 319 

had lost you altogether. Ryder was preparing to go out and 
scour the country for you ! ” 

Eleanor managed to produce a thin smile. 

“ I’m awfully sorry to have been so late, Miss Glyn ; the 
time slips away so, and to-night ” 

“ Why, how tired you look, dear ! Teddie, draw up that big 
chair for Eleanor.” 

Ryder came forward quickly and did Mary’s behest. 

“ Now, Miss Carradus ! ” and he lifted up a cushion pre- 
paratory to slipping it behind her back as she seated herself. 

“ Thank you very much, but really I ought to go and tidy 
myself ! ” 

“ Oh, nonsense ! ” said Mary. “ Never mind about dressing. 
Your supper will be ready any time. Jacobs is sure to have 
heard you come in ! ” 

“ I knew the walk would be too much for her,” remarked 
Ryder, as he returned to his writing. “ It is far further than 
one thinks to get round by the face of Windy Scar.” 

“ It was not exactly the walk,” began Eleanor, for she felt 
that she owed some explanation. Mary knew by her voice 
that something out of the way had happened, and her face 
grew serious. 

“ Well, you see,” stammered Eleanor, “I met Nell Carradus, 
and I thought I would go home with her.” Ryder laid down 
his pen again. “ I wanted to see how she lived. She didn’t 
want me to go, you know; it wasn’t her fault” — the words 
came out hurriedly now — “ but I would go — I forced her to 
let me go — and when I got there her mother was at home, and 
we thought she was asleep; and while Nell and I were looking 
at her — we found that she was dead ! And I know it’s very 
stupid of me, only ” 

Eleanor panted out the words, and her lips trembled 
ominously. 

“ Oh, my dear child ! ” 

Eleanor rose. “ Yes, I know it’s stupid of me — only, you 
know, I’ve never seen any one look quite like — like she did, 
Miss Glyn ! ” 


320 


T BACCA QUEEN 

Ryder was rising also, but Mary motioned him with her eyes 
and her forehead to remain where he was. 

“ I don’t wonder, dear, that you were upset. It must have 
been terrible — terrible. Would you really rather go ? ” 

For Eleanor had already fled to the door which Ryder 
hastily opened for her. She was making towards her room 
when Vixen came bounding to meet her. She stooped, and 
throwing her arms round her neck, she kissed her passionately. 
“ Vixen, darling ! ” she whispered, “ it was all a mistake — quite 
a mistake. Good dog ! No, go and lie down, my sweet ! ” 
Then, with blinded eyes, she hurried off to her own room, and 
kneeling by the bed, sobbed piteously. 

“ Aye, it was him as hes joost left ma ! ” Nell’s simple 
words had shattered the dream. 

Eleanor had only told Mary half the story. “ I will never, 
never, never tell anybody any more,” she thought. She had 
been wholly unnerved and unprepared for the great shock of 
coming suddenly upon Maria Carradus dead by her own fire- 
side. But it was not altogether due to this that the colour 
had passed from her cheeks and the light had gone out of 
her face. 

But happily for Eleanor the Glyns need never know more 
than she had told them. 

The joyous excitement of the last few months was now 
over, and at the first touch of heart trouble a wave of home 
sickness, or mother sickness, swept over the girl. She 
had been so comfortable, so happy, so contented in her 
life. She had hardly had a moment for regretting any of her 
past delights. Her time in England had been ideal. She 
enjoyed her immediate surroundings. Mr. Glyn was always 
kindness itself, and Mary had accepted her as if she had been 
a younger sister, and even Ryder’s companionship had been 
very pleasant. Day by day he had brought some fresh interest 
into her life, and had succeeded in drawing her far more into 
his many plans and projects than she at all realised. 

As to Arthur Cal th waite, she had for some time regarded 
him as her possession, He had thrown his personal spell 


321 


V BACCA QUEEN 

over her, and she, full of girlish romance, had willingly yielded 
herself to the fascinating influence ; but with one deft blow 
the ideal was shattered — the romance had turned into horrible 
farce. 

So Eleanor’s first overpowering thought was, that she wanted 
her mother. 

“ Oh, I have no one ! ” she moaned. “ Don’t you know 
that something has hurt your little Eleanor, mother dearest ? ” 
and again she buried her face in the snowy counterpane. 

There was a gentle tap at the door, and she sprang to her 
feet. It was only Madge. She entered calmly and took no 
particular notice of Eleanor’s woebegone appearance. 

“ Miss Glyn sends her love, miss, and thinks perhaps you 
would rather not come down again. She is sending your 
supper upstairs.” 

Eleanor was grateful for the considerate thought. Mary 
always seemed to think of the exact thing that helped any 
situation. 

'• Thank Miss Glyn for me please, Madge. That will be 
very nice. I must say I have rather a headache ! ” 

“ You’ll feel better after your supper, miss ! ” said Madge 
soothingly as she left the room. 

Just before Eleanor went to sleep Madge appeared again 
to see that she was comfortable and had everything she 
wanted. 

“ I wouldn’t fret, my lamb ! ” she said kindly, for she could 
not ignore the tear-stained cheeks. “There is no good done 
by fretting. You are overtired, and they are all very much 
upset downstairs that you should have seen such a sight — the 
master especially — but don’t you think any more about it, 
miss. It’s all over now.” 

Eleanor smiled gratefully in response to the old woman’s 
solicitude. “ She doesn’t really know,” thought poor Eleanor. 
“ They don’t any of them know.” 

Not think about it! Why, long after midnight she kept 
waking up off and on with strange, maddening dreams — 
dreams of Maria Carradus, of Nell, of Calthwaite, of the 


322 T BACCA QUEEN 

scramble up the Scar, of the Windy Scar itself, even of the 
fiery sun. 

Once it seemed to her that that awful woman was rushing 
after her up the stony path, and that she could not climb any 
quicker, and she waked, screaming, as the dead hand was 
laid on her shoulder, and the bloated lips touched her 
cheek. 

Again she dreamed that she and Calthwaite were seated as 
they had often lately sat, and when she looked, his face had 
turned to a grinning death’s-head, and she had turned to fly, 
but he drew her nearer, nearer, ever nearer, and again she 
shrieked aloud. 

This time she waked to find Madge in the room holding a 
glass in her hand. 

“ It’s all right, my pet — it is only Madge. There — there — 
drink this, my lamb ! ” 

She raised the scared girl on her arm, and put the glass to 
her lips. 

Eleanor drank the liquid obediently, and then sighed deeply 
as she lay back again. 

“ It was a dream, I suppose.” 

“ Yes, my pet, just a dream ! ” she replied soothingly. 
“ You cried out and you were heard, and Miss Mary rang for 
me.” 

As a matter of fact it was Ryder who had heard the piercing 
outcry, and he had roused Mary. 

“ Did I say anything ? ” she asked nervously. 

“No, no, dear; you only cried out. Now lie down — you 
will be asleep in a few minutes now, and Miss Mary says you 
are on no account to get up to breakfast.” 

Eleanor acquiesced easily. The sleeping-draught was 
already taking effect. 

“ Good-night, Madge ! ” 

“ Good-night, my pet ! ” 

Eleanor turned, and Madge seated herself for a few minutes 
before leaving her. 

Eleanor’s final effort was to toss herself round restlessly, and 


T BACCA QUEEN 323 

flinging up her arms she cried piteously, though unconsciously, 
“ Oh, kiss me, mother darling ! ” 

And Madge, creeping to the bedside, kissed the flushed, soft 
cheek, and breathed a silent prayer over her charge as she 
stood watching until the regular breathing showed that she was 
really asleep at last. 

The next day was Sunday. Early in the afternoon Mary 
retired again to rest with a severe headache, and Eleanor sat 
down by the sunny window, half playing with Vixen and half 
reading a story. 

A dainty dessert was laid out on a side-table awaiting the 
arrival of Mr. Glyn and Ryder — a little light refreshment 
after the labours of Sunday School, for afternoon tea was 
always later on Sunday. 

The dark lines were plainly visible under Eleanor’s eyes, 
but she was better and herself again, only suffering from an 
undue amount of severe thinking and strong mental effort, 
which always somewhat disturbed her equilibrium. 

When the father and son returned, however, she was bright 
and lively, and served them with her usual ease. 

“Well,” remarked Ryder, sighing deeply, “we are pre- 
paring for Whitsuntide again. Oh dear ! ” 

“ Why, what is the matter ? ” 

“ Oh, nothing. Only I have a fit of laziness upon me, and 
Sunday School becomes tedious work before the treat — more 
scholars, more unruliness, and general sense of unorderli- 
ness ! ” 

“ I think you show great want of spirit,” remarked Eleanor 
severely. “ You ought to rejoice in the joy of others.” 

Ryder did not retort that she herself had only been passing 
the hot -afternoon in peace and comfort away from the rush and 
overpowering closeness of a large Sunday School. 

“ Oh, I know, Miss Carradus, but man is a selfish animal, 
and he is only human.” 

Eleanor turned to Mr. Glyn. 

“ Mr. Glyn, I have something I want very much to ask you, 
I don’t think it is business— it’s more social 1 ” 


324 V BACCA QUEEN 

Mr. Glyn smiled benignly. He was pleased that she had 
recovered so soon. 

“Tell me ! ” he replied. 

“ Well, does the ‘ Wild Boar ’ belong to me ? ” 

“ It does, and it doesn’t.” 

Ryder looked up with interest. 

“ Now, Mr. Ryder,” she said peevishly, “ I rather wish you 
were not present, because I may say some things that will 
make you boast over me, and use that horrid expression, ‘I 
told you so ! ’ and if you do I shall hate you ! ” 

“ I’ll go if you’d rather. But I suppose I may take some 
of those grapes with me ? ” 

“ Nonsense. You can stay, of course, only you needn’t 
listen, that’s all ! ” 

Ryder laughed pleasantly. It always rejoiced his heart 
when Eleanor mocked at him. 

“ I beg your pardon, Mr. Glyn, but you know yesterday 
Nell told me that the ‘Wild Boar’ was mine, and if it is — it’s 
awful ! Why, I shall feel as if it were partly my fault about 
Nell’s mother. Would it be?” she urged anxiously. “ Please 
do tell me — really and truly.” 

“ Well, you see, at the moment, my dear, the house belongs 
to you — but it is leased to a brewery company. As a matter 
of fact the lease runs out this Whitsuntide. Then it will be in 
your hands, unless you renew.” 

“ Do you mean that I shall be a kind of publican, then ? ” 
Eleanor emphasised the last noun with disgust. 

Ryder could not help his lips twitching behind the 
Missionary News he was perusing. 

“ Well, if you like to put it so ? ” said her guardian 
gravely. 

“ But can’t I stop its being a public-house or something ? ” 

“ You can cease to apply for a licence, and then no one 
could sell beer or spirits in the house any more ! ” 

“ Then that’s what we’ll do ; shall we, Mr. Glyn ? and then 
Mr. Ryder can have it if he wants. He’ll soon have quite a 
menagerie under his charge ! A Green Dragon and a Wild 


T BACCA QUEEN 325 

Boar ! ” Eleanor came to her decisions rapidly. She did 
everything by impulse. 

But Mr. Glyn was not quite so ready. The matter was 
more of a “ business ” one than Eleanor imagined, and the 
lawyer was a careful trustee. 

“You would thereby reduce the value of your property by 
some ;£i 0,000,” said he drily. 

Eleanor stared. “ Mr. Glyn, you can’t mean that ! A dirty, 
horrid place like the ‘Wild Boar ’? I passed it last night, and 
stopped a minute and heard the shouting inside, and a little 
child came out with a pot of beer, and it nearly made me 
sick ! ” 

Dainty Eleanor did indeed look far removed from complicity 
with the horrors of a Scarth public-house. 

“^10,000 is about the difference between the value of the 
premises as licensed and unlicensed, in such a position. The 
magistrates are practically granting no new licences they can 
possibly avoid, the feeling in the country is so strong — so the 
old ones rise in value yearly, and the ‘ Wild Boar ’ is the only 
one in the centre of the Scarth.” 

“ Then what an awful lot the people must drink to make the 
house pay ! ” she said thoughtfully. Here was a complication 
she had not anticipated. “ I can do it, I suppose, if I like ? ” 

“ Oh, you can, of course ! ” 

“ Then we will, won’t we ? Why, Mr. Glyn, I could never 
sleep at night if I thought I was making money out of that 
awful place, out of the foolishness and misery of the people.” 

Mr. Glyn was a very good Christian man, and he was what 
the Temperance people called quite straight on the Drink 
Question, but all the same it was greatly against his business 
instincts to drop ^10,000 for a client. For himself he would 
not have thought twice about the matter, but his responsibilities 
for a client stood on a different basis in his mind. 

“I’ll think it over, my dear,” he said thoughtfully; “it is 
not a thing I can give an opinion upon without considera- 
tion.” 

“ And, Mr. Glyn, as we are talking, I want you to arrange 


T BACCA QUEEN 


326 

for Nell to have some money. I had thought about ^10,000. 
Do you think that would be fair ? ” 

If Mr. Glyn had not been extremely polite and phlegmatic 
he might have gasped at his ward’s rapid flights ; as it was he 
merely uncrossed his legs thoughtfully and recrossed them 
again. 

“ You see, it would only be fair, and then there are those 
three children too. They ought to have something ! ” 

“ I understand that the children and Nell are at present to 
go to the Great House. William and Janet would hear of 
nothing else.” 

“ Then if they are prepared to do so much for them, I must 
do my share, of course ! ” 

Mr. Glyn could not exactly bring his mind to this wholesale 
dissipation of the fortune. 

“ Of course, my dear, it is quite right that you should think 
that something must be done, that something substantial would 
only be fair under the circumstances — but you are so sur- 
prisingly quick, Miss Eleanor, you must really allow me a little 
time.” 

“ Of course,” she returned politely ; “ I know I always like 
to get at things quickly. But there’s just one thing more I 
have thought about. Couldn’t we pull down most of the houses 
belonging to me on the Scarth and rebuild them and tidy the 
place up, you know ? It really is horridly dirty. I should hate 
to live there myself — really I was quite ashamed yesterday. I 
can’t get it out of my mind. Why, the houses look the wrong 
way, they want twisting round ! ” 

Ryder could not really help laying down his paper and 
breaking into a soft laugh. 

“ Well, Miss Carradus, really this is a Sunday business talk. 
When you talk business you are terrific ! ” 

Eleanor turned on him deeply offended. “ Now you are 
laughing; I have not been half nor a quarter as terrific this 
afternoon as you often are about the things you talk to me 
about. It’s just because I am a woman that you jeer. Why, 
I thought that the rebuilding of the Scarth would be just the 


T BACCA QUEEN 327 

kind of thing you would approve of. I thought you were so 
keen on sanitary dwellings, or whatever you call them ! ” 

“ I’m very sorry,” said Ryder, “lam indeed. Of course I 
am interested, only you put it rather — well, as if you thought 
it could all be done to-morrow ! ” 

“ However I may have appeared to you to put it, I have 
never believed that ! I have some small amount of sense, I 
trust ! ” 

“ My dear,” interposed her guardian, “ all that you have 
suggested this afternoon will need a good deal of consideration, 
and I am sure that neither Ryder nor myself would hinder you 
in anything reasonable that you wanted — always, of course, 
provided that your own interests were properly secured. I 
should never feel justified in advising you seriously against 
your own interests.” 

“ Of course, Mr. Glyn, you know far better than I do, only 
don’t you think I should be happier all my life if I had a clear 
conscience ? It wouldn’t really matter if there were rather less 
money. There is so much more than I want.” 

But Mr. Glyn was still not quite prepared to commit himself 
to an opinion. 

He rose. “Well, Miss Eleanor, it is quite right for you to 
have spoken to me, and I will certainly see what can be done 
in the directions you have indicated, and that is all I can say 
this afternoon.” 

“ I’m very much obliged, Mr. Glyn. I am afraid I give you 
a lot of trouble ! ” 

“ Not at all, my dear, not at all,” he said cordially as he left 
the room. 

Ryder laid down his paper politely when his father had 
departed. 

“ Oh, go on with your reading, Mr. Ryder — I am going too. 
You have hurt my mind, and I loathe any one who hurts my 
mind ! ” 

“ I haven’t really, have I, Miss Carradus ? ,- 

“ Of course you have ! ” she retorted. “ It isn’t nice when 
you make up your mind to do something that you think right, 


3^8 


r BA CCA QUEEN 


to have other people mocking. It makes me think when 
people do that, that all their wonderful talk about duty and 
responsibility, &c., &c., &c., is nothing whatever but talk and 
false boasting when it comes to the real point.” 

“ You don’t really mean what you are saying ? ” Ryder, too, 
was hurt. He was extremely sensitive on the point of acting 
up to his professions. Why would she take things in such a 
desperately wrong light? 

Eleanor could not imagine herself why she had flown out in 
such a way, but she was certainly not going to give in now. 

“ Of course I always mean what I say,” she declared as she 
left the room. 


CHAPTER XXXVI 

For the next week or more Eleanor passed her days in a kind 
of dream. She went through the little daily affairs much as she 
was accustomed to do ; but Mary missed the usual eagerness 
and cheerful light-heartedness. 

Eleanor was extremely restless and absent-minded. She 
started at the bell, she refused to go out, she absented herself 
in her own room. 

Mary was puzzled. " Dear, are you sure that you are quite 
well ? ” she ventured one day. 

Eleanor’s pale cheeks crimsoned. “ Oh, perfectly well, Miss 
Glyn, thank you ! Don’t worry about me, please. I get an 
odd fit upon me now and again. It will pass all in good time. 
A little wholesome neglect is what I want, I think ! ” 

And with that most unsatisfactory explanation Mary had to 
be content. 

There was not a shadow of doubt in Eleanor’s mind regard- 
ing her attitude towards Calthwaite. He had wounded her 
deeply — wounded her in the most sensitive point, struck at 
all womanhood by his treatment of her and Nell. Every part 
of her nature rose up in rebellion at the idea of the possible 
insult which Calthwaite might yet seek to lay upon her ; at 


3 2 9 


V BACCA QUEEN 

the thought that even yet he might presume to offer her 
marriage. So she was strangely restless. Sometimes she hoped 
that she should never see him again, at others that it was quite 
impossible that he could really come to the point with her after 
what had happened. Surely he might guess that his insult to 
Nell might become known to her ? Then there were times 
when a buoyant reckless spirit came over her, and she 
yearned for an occasion on which she might try her strength 
against his. She went over every possible conversation in her 
mind, making up what she intended to say. But at night 
when all was quiet, and there was nothing to hinder the pres- 
sure of steady thought from closing around her, then Eleanor 
was very, very miserable. She was miserable with pure loneli- 
ness. In spite of the many friends she had made in England 
it seemed that there was no one to whom she could now go — 
no one to whom she could open her mind. 

These Glyns had been very kind — very kind indeed, she 
reiterated to herself ; but though they had never said a word to 
her, she had an impression that her Calthwaite infatuation had 
not been quite according to their minds. 

The two women with whom she was most at ease were Miss 
Calthwaite and Mary. Miss Calthwaite was, of course, quite 
out of the question ; and as for Mary — well, at the thought of 
consulting Ryder’s sister, she blushed all alone by herself. 

Why not write to Katchen ? The thought came to her as an 
inspiration one long, restless night ; and next day Eleanor sent 
the following letter flying across to Germany : — 

The Abbey, Farbiggin, 
April. 

“ Dear, darling Katchen, — How would it be if I came 
over to Germany next month to spend my twenty-first birthday 
in the dear old Vaterland? Could dear Frau von Hervart 
do with me? 

“Yours ever the same, 

Helenchen.” 

It was nearly a fortnight after the memorable Saturday, and 
22 


330 


T BACCA QUEEN 

Eleanor was still suffering from the strain of uncertainty. She 
had neither seen nor heard of Calthwaite during that time. 

Eleanor knew perfectly well that she was thinner and paler 
than usual, and that there were deep cups under her eyes. 
She was intensely mortified that it should be so — mortified 
that it seemed impossible for her to keep her trouble to herself. 
Even at lunch to-day she thought she had noticed both Mr. 
Glyn and Ryder looked at her with awakened and com- 
prehending interest; and she grew desperate. 

Mary was out for the afternoon at the Vicarage, but had 
promised to be in to afternoon tea. So Eleanor decided that 
she had a good opportunity for a thorough musical grind, so 
searching through her music, and picking out one of the 
most difficult of Chopin’s studies, she set to work. 

A study of Chopin does not leave much time for private 
meditation, and Eleanor started as the door opened and Jacobs’ 
even voice announced, “ Mr. Calthwaite, miss.” 

She rose slowly from her seat, and stood with her hand rest- 
ing on the polished piano case ; but she made no movement 
forward, but sought to think of the things she had meant to 
say. In a flash she knew they were gone from her. 

Calthwaite came forward in his usual easy style, and smiled 
his old irresistible smile so full of unexpressed flattery that for 
a second Eleanor’s heart sank. Was she going to succumb to 
the first smile ? But instantly she recovered herself, and her 
face grew cold and hard, though the suppressed nervousness 
reddened her cheeks. 

The position was awkward enough. It was difficult to refuse 
a man with scorn until he had made the proposal ; yet she had 
no intention of allowing him to insult her with a declaration, 
neither was she certain that he had come for that purpose, 
though there was a look in his face that warned her. 

“ How do you do, Miss Carradus ? ” and he put out his hand 
cordially ; but Eleanor stooped to pick up a piece of music that 
had fallen down. 

“ Good afternoon, Mr. Calthwaite,” she remarked without a 
shade of interest in her voice. She looked straight at him, and 


33i 


T BACCA QUEEN 

noticed a tiny scrap of sticking-plaster on his left cheek. That 
little piece of plaster calmed Eleanor still further ; made every- 
thing once again clear and straightforward. 

Calthwaite seemed quite unaware of the implied snub. 

“ Which chair, Miss Carradus ? ” and he laid his hand on a 
comfortable chair. “ But perhaps I am interrupting you ? ” 

“ I’m quite comfortable here,” and she dropped down again 
on to the stool. She felt protected by the grand piano in 
front of her. 

Calthwaite thinking that she was very shy decided that he 
had better plunge into the matter he had come about without 
delay. 

“ I called this morning on Mr. Glyn, Miss Carradus, and I 
have permission to speak to you this afternoon.” 

“ Indeed ! ” 

“ And I trust that I have your permission also.” He was so 
sure of his ground that again he smiled. 

She waited a moment in silence ; the tug of war had come. 

“ No ; there you are mistaken ! ” and she rose. 

“ Eleanor ! ” 

“ I beg your pardon.” 

Calthwaite flushed at the deep scorn in the tone. It struck 
him that one hundred thousand pounds would slip away if he 
were not careful. 

“ Excuse me, sir.” 

She left the friendly protection of the piano, and drawing 
her skirt aside as she passed him, she moved towards the bell. 

“ Mr. Calthwaite, I regret to say that* the man made a 
blunder this afternoon. I am not at home. Will you let your- 
self out, or shall I ring the bell ? ” 

“ I don’t think I quite understand ! ” he stammered. Had 
she wavered an instant, had he seen the least suspicion of a 
quiver on those little lips, he might have ventured more ; 
but as it was, he merely stammered, stopped short, and repeated 
the unready words, “ I — I don’t understand ! ” 

She lifted her hand from the bell without ringing it, and 
walked slowly to the door. Then she turned, “I hardly think, 


332 T BACCA QUEEN 

Mr. Calthwaite, that so long as there is a mirror in the room I 
need explain,” and without another word she opened the door 
and closed it softly behind herself. 

Then she quickly escaped to her own room, and stood there 
panting. She had done it — done this awful thing — closed 
the door behind her for ever, crushed the life out of the 
dream. She expected within herself that she would now be 
filled with uncontrollable remorse or exquisite sorrow ; but she 
was amazed to find herself raging with anger. 

“To come to me ! — me ! — with that scar on his cheek, to dare 
to lift his eyes to mine ! ” 

Then, instead of weeping, she discovered that her eyes were 
dry, that her heart was quite resolved ; and she felt an un- 
expected sense of reprieve come over her. She threw up her 
arms and gave a great sigh of sheer relief. Then, catching 
sight of her white, strained countenance in the glass, she forth- 
with mocked at it derisively. “ Oh, Eleanor ! You — you 
moaning for a man like that.” She went to a certain drawer 
and drew out an assortment of goods — flowers, sketches, notes 
— not very many, but enough. The fire was ready set for 
lighting, so she placed them on the top of the coals. Then 
she struck a match, and lighted them. 

Her face lightened with the dancing light, and, satisfied, she 
waited until the last little spark had run up and down in vain 
amongst the black ashes. Then she arrayed herself in a new 
afternoon frock which had just come from London, and 
descended, hoping that Mary had returned for afternoon tea. 

When Eleanor * appeared Jacobs, whilst handing her the 
afternoon’s post, informed her that Miss Glyn was not yet 
returned. 

Katchen’s well-known handwriting was clearly visible, and 
Eleanor tore open the letter. She wrote most enthusiastically, 
sending the kindest message from Frau von Hervart, urging 
Eleanor to come with all speed, in order that she might be in 
time for certain musical events which were impending. 

Eleanor laid the letter down, smiling happily to herself at 
the ideas which the bright letter brought before her. The 


333 


V BACCA QUEEN 

thought of genial, beautiful, friendly old Germany took away 
the sense of nightmare under which she had been labouring. 

She would have no more emotional experiences, she would 
slip away for a little rest and change. 

When Mary returned, Eleanor seated herself on a low stool 
in such a position that Mary could not see her face. She did 
not speak, and Mary remarked quietly, though with an anxious 
heart, “ Jacobs tells me that Mr. Calthwaite has been here.” 

“ Yes, he came, and he has gone, and I never — never — 
want to see him again !” 

Mary’s heart leaped up with gladness. No words could 
express the relief this short, decided sentence was to her. 

Her father had told her in a few brief words before lunch 
that Mr. Calthwaite was coming, and she had felt that though 
this thing was very bitter to her, she could do nothing but let 
Eleanor have a perfectly free hand. She could not in the 
least degree bias her in favour of Ryder. 

She had gone to the Vicarage, and poured out her soul to 
Catherine, who had stormed alternately at Ryder, Calthwaite, 
and Eleanor ; and she had been terror-stricken at the thought 
of what Ryder might find when he returned from his office. 
So when Eleanor burst forth in such a determined manner 
with her news, she could not resist seizing her hand and saying 
rejoicingly, “ Oh, I am so glad ! ” 

“ Well, we need not discuss him, Miss Glyn, but I think 
that I owe it to you and Mr. Glyn to tell you that I discovered 
some short time ago that I had made an awful mistake, which 
I shall never cease to regret.” 

Mary asked no more. The less she knew of Eleanor’s 
private feelings the better, she thought. 

Eleanor drew out Katchen’s letter from her pocket. 

“ I think, Miss Glyn, that it would be a good thing if I had 
a little change. I want to go back to Germany for a visit. I 
should like to go back at once. I should like to go this very 
week ! ” 

Mary took the letter and read it. She could not help 
smiling at the enthusiasm. 


334 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“I am sure we must be very dull after all this ! ” she 
remarked sympathetically. “Iam sure that it can be arranged 
somehow. I will tell my father that it is the right thing 
for you.” 

And then they talked about Germany until the dressing-gong 
sounded. 


CHAPTER XXXVII 

Dr. Maddison had Nell on his mind. It worried him to see 
her so dull and listless. By dint of some considerable amount 
of persuasion, he had induced her to agree to breaking up the 
house, and had satisfied her that for the present at any rate 
she ought to take advantage of her uncle and aunt’s kind offer 
of a home at the Great House. 

Nell was passing through a curious state of mind. Her 
companions at the tobacco factory looked on her with surprise. 
They supposed that she must be fretting for her mother, and 
yet they could not imagine that Maria Carradus could be any 
great loss. 

Since Nell’s success at the festival her companions were 
prouder than ever of their ’Bacca Queen, and, to tell the truth, 
the managers were surprised as week by week Nell continued 
her work, and failed to give in her “ notice ” ; for rumours had 
spread in Farbiggin that the Scarth heiress was taking her 
cousin up, and this would, as all felt, mean a great change of 
some kind for Nell. But any such idea seemed far from her 
mind, and though she now lived at the Great House, she went 
regularly to work, and did her duty with the same dogged 
energy as of old, but the old, cheerful smile seldom dawned 
upon her face. 

In vain Dr. Maddison asked her what was the matter. She 
always gave the invariable answer that “ she ailed nowt ! ” 

Then he risked his friendship with her by asking “ what she 
had done with that young man of hers ? ” 

And the risk was great, for Nell turned on him indignantly 
as if he had been guilty of the rankest impertinence, and 


V BACCA QUEEN 335 

suggested that even a “ ’bacca lass’s tongue wasn’t med to 
answer a’ t’ questions as folk bethowt theersells to exe.” 

Whereby Dr. Maddison perceived that Nell Carradus was in 
no fit mood for reason, so he turned the matter off with one 
of his short, sarcastic laughs. 

The fact was, however, that Nell was suffering deeply from 
self-disappointment. She was absolutely wild with herself. 
It seemed to her in her heated imagination that she would like 
to tear away from herself that Nell who had brought all this 
humiliation upon her. For, notwithstanding all her self- 
depreciating remarks, Nell had always felt deep down in her 
heart that she was no fool : yet here she found herself, self- 
proven without any shadow of doubt, a declared ordinary 
woman-fool — taken in, misled, and almost ruined by a 
commonplace, flattering tongue. It was agony to her to 
discover that she who had scorned her mother, and looked 
with undisguised contempt on the other silly girls of her 
acquaintance, should have acted so absurdly. It seemed 
to her that she hardly dare walk the streets for fear of 
meeting the cause of her humiliation. Try as she might to 
cast this thing behind her, she could not do it. Down came 
the thoughts and remembrances of past episodes, foolish 
speeches, petty doings which made her blush again with 
shame. Even the sight of Jane Ann Martin trapesing up and 
down the Scarth with her puny infant in her arms seemed to 
turn her sick with impotent horror. 

Then again there was no doubt that Nell was extremely 
dull. All the excitement of the practisings and the Festival 
were over. There was now no reason for frequenting The 
Abbey, so that she missed the refinement of Miss Glyn’s and 
Eleanor’s companionship, and then John Fleming had left 
the town. 

Now that Nell had no one else to think about she was 
terribly homesick for Jack. She turned a deaf ear to many a 
one who would fain have offered her consolation. It was Jack 
she wanted, and as she could not have him, she sat at home 
in the evenings or strolled listlessly about with Sarah. 


T’ BACCA QUEEN 


336 

The doctor offered to pay her expenses in any profession 
she chose to take up, but even this generous offer seemed to 
be no temptation. 

“ Nad, naa, Dr. Maddison. Let me a-be ! ” 

“ Is it that young Fleming she is wanting ? ” asked the 
doctor of Janet privately. 

“ Naa, sir, I don’t kna. She sent him off a while sen. He 
com tull oor William, and telt him as she wadn’t hev him. I 
niver seed a lad sa down. But he’s a good plucked ’un is 
Jack, and he went straight tull his job at Low Ridding, and 
med naa bother. Oor William telt him as efter a’ it was happen 
t’ best as it was, as t’ lass was nin religious, and that he’d 
better lait a proper saved lass.” 

“There I disagree with your husband,” said the doctor, 
shortly; “John Fleming may go a very long way before he 
finds another Nell Carradus, saved or unsaved!” 

“ That’s what I say, Doctor ! ” acquiesced Janet ; “ but 
William says I’se wrang, and saved folk should not be 
unequally yoked together wi’ unbelievers ! ” 

“Well, well, Mrs. Carradus, I never was a theologian, 
especially as I happen to be one of the unsaved myself, but 
I agree with you that Nell could do with a little more saving 
grace, though she’s a grand woman for all that ! ” 

So Doctor Maddison in his perplexity decided that he 
would step over to The Abbey and consult Miss Glyn. 
When he called one afternoon he found Mary and Eleanor 
together. 

Mary was delighted to see him, as she always enjoyed a 
good chat with Dr. Maddison. She appreciated the kind, 
hearty nature which lay underneath the rugged exterior, and 
the man instinctively modified himself in her presence, and 
refrained from exhibiting the full extent of his brusquerie. 
Probably Dr. Maddison’s only chance of giving in his full 
allegiance to Christ lay not through the clergy nor dissenting 
revival preachers, but through the influence of this woman, 
whose sufferings and cheerful peacefulness he had been 
intimately acquainted with for the last ten years. 


T BACCA QUEEN 337 

“The fact is, Miss Glyn, I am a bit of a worry, as you 
know. It is Nell Carradus this time ! ” 

Eleanor looked up from her tea-making with interest. 

“You see, it is absurd for a girl like that to continue at the 
tobacco shop on half a sovereign or some such ridiculous 
sum a week.” 

“ It does seem a pity,” Mary agreed. 

“ I suppose you know the history of her birth ? ” 

“ No, she never told me.” 

“ Then I suppose I ought not to, but you’re a safe person, 
Miss Glyn, and so no doubt is Miss Carradus ! ” 

“ I’ll go if you like, Dr. Maddison,” Eleanor suggested 
politely. She was always afraid of being de trop in this 
friendly household. 

“ Oh, nonsense. Well, I won’t mention names, and then no 
harm will be done. The point is that her father was a gentle- 
man — in fact, a titled man of a ‘ good ’ old family as we call it 
in these snobbish days, though where the goodness comes in 
is a question. However, that accounts for the breeding which 
has puzzled me so often. I now understand where she gets 
that indefinable hauteur. Why, I felt like a whipped cur 
myself the other day when I sought to pry too deeply into her 
feelings ! ” 

“I always maintained that Nell could not be pure Scarth,” 
said Mary. 

“ No, well what I have indicated accounts for that feeling. 
So I offered to send her off to be trained. She’d make a 
capital nurse, for instance, but no suggestion has any effect. 
Now, what do you advise ? Shall I let the matter drop or 
shall I press it ? For the life of me I don’t know why I 
bother ! The girl is rude enough, but she’s a good sort 
somehow, though her uncle does sigh over her as one of the *■ 
unregenerate, and no doubt he is right from his point of view, 
but the fact is that I am rather afraid some fool or other may 
get hold of her. I warned her a short time ago, but she 
put me off — you’ll think me quite an old grandmother, Miss 
Glyn!” 


33§ 


T BACCA QUEEN 


Eleanor went to the window on some vague pretence. 
“ Some fool or other ” was an expression she could not quite 
hear unmoved. 

“ Dr. Maddison,” said Mary, “ I think that you are just the 
kind of man to help Nell. She needs some one strong to guide 
her in the right way.” * Mary looked across at Eleanor and 
wondered whether she were at liberty to tell Eleanor’s pre- 
sent proposal. “ Dr. Maddison is asking us a difficult 
question. Is he not, Eleanor? We often discuss Nell, do 
we not ? ” 

Dr. Maddison had his own ideas as to what he considered 
Eleanor’s attitude ought to be towards her cousin. He was, 
in fact, a little antagonistic in his mind towards the girl. He 
felt that his friendship for Nell required it. 

But Eleanor, quite unconscious that she was breaking down 
any prejudice, broke forth eagerly at Mary’s suggestion. She 
foresaw that the doctor might be a strong ally both as regard- 
ng her guardian and Nell. 

She therefore told him freely what was in her mind, and 
Dr. Maddison’s face assumed a more and more comical ex- 
pression, which Mary decidedly appreciated as she forcibly 
argued her point. It struck him that there was nothing to 
equal an eager woman bound for justice, for scrambling helter 
skelter over circumstances and cutting with her weapon of 
inconsequent logic the tangles of methodical unfairness. 

“ I suppose that I shall have to give in to Mr. Glyn, because 
I can’t help it,” she sighed. “He declines to arrange for 
Nell to have any more than ^2,000 capital, the same sum as 
was left to her other cousins, but he says that I may give her 
as much as I like out of my ordinary income, and that I may 
pay for the keep of the three children of Nell’s mother as 
well, so that is all I can do.” She was sorry it was so little, 
for she had dreamed of turning Nell straightway into a rich 
woman. 

The doctor smiled. “ And quite enough for all good pur- 
poses,” he remarked cordially. “ We all want to help Nell, 
but we don’t want to spoil her ! And if she turns stupid and 


T BACCA QUEEN 339 

refuses to take the money for herself, she might take it for a 
husband. If Nell would only persuade herself to make that 
young Fleming happy, matters might settle themselves com- 
fortably ! ” 

“Fleming? Is that the young man the 'florist that my 
sister-in-law is always quoting ? ” 

“ Yes ; he is a smart fellow, and a good one too — quite pious, 
you know. Why, he is in your brother’s class.” 

“ One of my tenors,” interrupted Eleanor. 

“Yes, that’s the man I mean. His late master told me 
only the other day that he had uncommonly good brains, and 
only needed a little additional capital to build himself up a 
first-class business and carry out to completion some exceed- 
ingly clever experiments. There’s an investment for you, Miss 
Carradus ! ” 

They laughed, and finally it was decided that when 
Eleanor called to wish goodbye at the Great House she might 
see what she could do to bring Nell to reason. 

So the following evening Eleanor called on Janet, who 
received her with some amount of natural dignity and great 
cordiality. She brought her into the front parlour and found 
her the best chair, and inquired after her health, and sug- 
gested that the spring weather was seasonable. 

“ I’m going away for some time, Aunt Janet ! ” said Eleanor 
simply, “and I came to say goodbye before leaving. I am 
going to Germany.” 

“ Germany, miss ! ” exclaimed Janet. “Well, I never ! I’d 
have thought as you’d had enough o’ foreign parts; as I’ve 
said many a time to our William, ‘ To think o’ yon poor lass 
niver seed Farbiggin while she was twenty year auld ! ’ ” 

“ Farbiggin is an awfully nice place, only, you know, I have 
a lot of friends there who have been very kind to me.” Janet 
went to the door. 

“ Nell,” she called, “ coom ! Here’s Miss Carradus ; she 
wants tha ! ” 

When Nell appeared she greeted her cousin bashfully, but 
noticed that she was looking extremely slender and tired, and 


340 V BACCA QUEEN 

* 

Eleanor as instantly noted the fact that Nell was shockingly 
altered. 

“I’m going away to Germany, Nell,” said Eleanor, looking 
straight in Nell’s face ; “ I want a change.” 

“I see,” returned Nell. 

“Yes, and before I go, Nell, you remember what I once 
said about the money ; I have done my best, and it has been 
decided that you are to have ^2,000 of the money left to me, 
the same sum as was left to your other cousins.” 

Nell stood back a moment, and Janet made a short excla- 
mation. 

“ I’ve telt you before as I don’t want John Carradus’ brass ! ” 

“ I know dear Nell, but this money is not his. It is mine, 
and this plan is right — the very least that is right — but it is all 
they will let me do at present. You know, if you don’t want 
it now yourself, you might be glad to give it to some one else 
some time.” 

Eleanor became vague on this last point ; she stumbled at 
the idea of using any word more explicit to Nell after what 
they had suffered together. 

Nell was silent. She was so determined to hug her troubles 
that it was hard to have the grievance swept away. 

“ I know it is not much, Nell, not even what I call fair, but 
Mr. Glyn says that if you have any plans for yourself I may 
give you any money you may need from the income as well.” 

“ Do you want me to thank you ? ” asked Nell bluntly, 

“ because if you do I can’t.” 

“ Nell, fer sham’ o’ thisell ! ” cried her aunt. 

“ Oh dear, no ! ” said Eleanor heartily. “ Of course I 
don’t. There is no kindness in the matter at all. Now let us 
talk of something else. Where is my uncle ? ” 

William came in, and Eleanor continued her call for a few 
minutes, and then departed well pleased with her visit. 

Nell saw her to the door, and Eleanor could not help saying 
with a light laugh, “Nell, dear, you and I are two silly women. 
Give me a kiss before I go away ! ” 

Nell allowed the kiss passively, and Eleanor slipped away a 
trifle disappointed. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


341 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 

It was on Sunday night that Nell missed John Fleming the 
most. 

She had established the habit of attending Mr. Glyn’s 
Mission Room, and taking a walk with Jack afterwards, and 
so on the Sunday after Eleanor had left'Farbiggin she turned 
in, merely for something to do. 

The place was packed with people, and as the night was 
stormy, the warmth seemed cheerful. 

Nell knew the routine of the service well. The prayers, the 
hymns, the hearty choruses; the quaint testimonies from the 
working men and women from the platform seemed to her to 
be much as usual ; and again she wondered, as she had often 
wondered before, how people could talk as these people seemed 
able to do about their own inmost experiences. 

But during the latter part of the service Ryder Glyn rose to 
give the address. 

Nell always gave Ryder attention, partly because Jack talked 
so much about him, and partly because she never listened 
without bringing away some mental food on which her 
vigorous though uncultured mind could work in its own strange 
way. 

But to-night, as Nell looked at Mr. Ryder from her corner, 
she was greatly struck with his look of depression. He seemed 
unusually nervous and anxious. 

“ Hes t’ warld getten wrang wi ? him and a’ ? ” thought Nell 
to herself. 

The interest of such an idea set her listening, but she very 
soon forgot the attitude of the speaker as the nervousness 
forsook him and he entered into the heart of his subject ; and 
to-night it seemed as though Ryder were preaching to himself 
rather than to the people. 

He had taken for his subject the man of God, Elijah, 
alone in the wilderness with his God. 

In a few strong, picturesque strokes he showed the people 


34 2 


T BACCA QUEEN 


Elijah triumphant at Carmel — Elijah victorious over eight 
hundred and fifty prophets of Baal — Elijah when the hand of 
the Lord was upon him, and he girded up his loins and 
ran before Ahab to the entrance of jezreel. And having 
shown the people the strength of the man with the power 
of Jehovah upon him, Ryder suddenly changed the picture 
from one of mighty triumph to one of miserable failure 
— the failure of a man without God. Showed the picture of a 
man who, with God, saved a kingdom ; without God, fled for 
his life in terror at the threat of an angry woman. 

“ So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy 
life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time ! ” 
Jezebel had said, and the prophet, flying into the wilderness 
and sitting under a juniper-tree, had requested that he might die. 

“ It is enough ; now, Lord, take away my life ; for I am not 
better than my fathers ! ” 

And then he showed the tenderness of God to His dis- 
couraged servant, and this brought him to his text : “ Arise 
and eat, because the journey is too great for thee ! ” And 
dwelling for a few moments on the prophet’s special circum- 
stances, he turned the discourse round to the personal needs 
of himself and his audience. 

“ My friends, surely all of us have found that the journey is 
too great for us ? I care not whether we be consciously the 
Lord’s or not, but this journey — this journey of life stretching 
out before us — is too great for any one of us. 

“ Is there one here who can say, ‘ I am equal to this journey 
— for me there are no difficulties I cannot overcome — no foes 
I cannot conquer — no sorrows I cannot bear ? * 

Friends, let us be honest with ourselves, let us confess that 
the journey is too great. Trials, disappointments, temptations 
flood our souls. They overwhelm us, they drag us down to 
despair, we faint for hunger, our strength is gone, the humilia- 
tion of a mighty fear terrorises over our spirits. And some- 
times, friends, it seems to me that we come to a full stop in 
our lives. We know not how to go further; we have no 
strength to pursue the path which as yet we know not. 


343 


T BACCA QUEEN 

“Then what is the remedy ? Let us arise and eat ! Arise, 
friends, stand up boldly. Lift our drooping souls, eat of the 
bread of life and live. 

“ Let us know for ourselves that there is no true life apart 
from the Bread of Life. It is necessary that Christ Himself 
should be in and around us. Our life must be drawn from 
Him, if we are to know the life more abundant. Dear friends, 
the journey is indeed too great for us. It is too great for you, 
it is too great for me. I beseech you to take of the Bread of 
Life, and strengthen your weakness with the strength of God.” 

As he uttered the last words his voice dropped to a tenderly 
pleading tone, and then suddenly he raised himself to his full 
height, and his words poured forth as if from outside of himself 
a message had come to the people, and in delivering it the 
voice that rang through the hall was scornful with passion — 

“Oh, my friends, what fools, what blind fools we are, to 
think that we — we the people here in this little town of 
Farbiggin, we mere nobodies on the face of the earth — can 
disregard the power of God which the greatest men the world 
has ever seen have needed — have striven for, have wept for, 
have died for ! 

“ Some of you sometimes sing a hymn congratulating your- 
selves that you are not ashamed of Christ ! 

“ Friends, I tell you clearly — passionately — with all my soul 
— I loathe that hymn ! Ashamed ! We ashamed ? We miser- 
able mortals to suggest, even to ourselves, that it is in some way 
to our credit that we are not ashamed of the God of the whole 
earth — the Lord Jehovah — omnipotent and mighty to save ! 

“ Not ashamed of Christ the Son, who performed that 
miracle of all miracles when He became man — born of a 
woman — a pure virgin — but descended according to the flesh 
from a David, a Bathsheba, a Jehoram, a harlot named Rahab 
— and Christ the Son, who died for the world as His executioners 
lay gambling at His feet during the final agony ! 

“ Ashamed, my friends, of God the Holy Ghost, who broods 
over this sin-sick world — who lightens our darkness, who calms 
our despair, who leads us into all truth ! 


344 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“ I have done ! But listen ere I sit down to the words of 
the Lord Jehovah Himself to His servant Job, and whilst you 
are listening, consider your own position before the Eternal 
God. 

“ ‘ Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him ? 
He that reproveth God, let him answer it. 

“ 1 Gird up thy loins now like a man : I will demand of 
thee, and declare thou me. 

“ ‘ Wilt thou disannul My judgment ? Wilt thou condemn 
Me, that thou mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like 
God ? or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him ? 

“ ‘ Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency ; and array 
thyself with glory and beauty. 

“ ‘ Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath ; and behold every one 
that is proud, and abase him. 

“ ‘ Look on every one that is proud and bring him low ; and 
tread down the wicked in their place. 

“ ‘ Hide them in the dust together ; and bind their faces in 
secret. 

“ ‘ Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right 
hand can save thee ! ’ ” 

Ryder sat down and the meeting closed, but Nell hardly 
waited a moment afterwards, but slipped away as quickly as 
she could — away — out — anywhere — only to be alone ! 

For it seemed as though the Lord were having a controversy 
with Nell. The words of the preacher had augmented the 
storm in that turbulent heart. 

“The journey is too great for thee!” Nell knew this 
at last. 

Yes, it was all quite true. She, as Mr. Ryder had said, had 
come to a full stop in her life. She knew T it, and the Lord 
knew it. 

Certainly the Lord knew it, and knowing it as He did, was 
it likely that He would allow this child of His to go forward 
alone ? If the journey were too great, what then ? 

Nell fled from the thought — fled up the Scarth and out on to 
the fell. There was no John Fleming to-night. What did 


345 


T BACCA QUEEN 

that matter ? She could go her walk alone. It was a wild, 
stormy night — one of those nights when there is no rain, but 
when the wind sweeps high and terrible and the clouds chase 
each other across the sky, playing a game of perpetual aggrava- 
tion with the patient stars and the careering moon. 

As Nell reached the Scarth wood which skirted the lower 
reaches of the fell, there was a roar as of a mighty ocean 
tempest amongst the great pines and beeches, larches and 
sycamores. 

She stood for a few moments under a rough wall and 
listened. Without a break the wind howled and howled again 
in a continuous rush of crescendos and diminuendoes. 

It seemed to the girl, standing shuddering there, that each 
roar answered a corresponding one in her own heart. A desire 
seized her to enter the wood, to pierce the tempest and discover 
what lay at its heart. 

Without a thought of fear she passed through the little stile 
and went up through the dark undergrowth. The wind still 
played his fierce havoc withi the new spring buds and leaves, 
and the moon cast down her weird and surprising shadows in 
her path. 

But still Nell was not afraid. Not all the commotion 
around her was as fearful as the storm raging in her own heart. 

The controversy with God was strong and fierce. Was she 
or was she not willing in all humility to acknowledge that it 
was necessary to her to accept the guidance of God, to respond 
to the call and say, “ The journey is too great for me, give me 
to eat ” ? 

“ The journey is too great for thee ! ” Again the words rang 
in her excited ears. Nell knew the truth at last. She had 
known it, recognised in it impotent anger for some time now. 
Would the knowledge bring a blessing or a curse ? Could she 
accept the conditions with all simplicity, and once and for all 
cast aside her pride and the controversy which she had pre- 
sumed to hold with the Almighty? 

It certainly was not Nell alone who was interested in the 
question. 

23 


V BACCA QUEEN 


346 

Both God and the devil were involved in that controversy 
regarding the life of Nell Carradus. 

It was not possible that God had remained an unmoved 
witness to the fierce, almost grand struggles after righteousness 
of this woman, whose life had from babyhood been blasted 
with the most blasting of all curses. 

It was not possible that He who regardeth the prayer of the 
ravens when they cry should refrain from holding forth His 
hand to steady the tempest-tossed bark, from offering to take 
the helm. 

Nell pressed through the wood out on to the wide fell. There 
was abundant light from the dashing moon and the spring 
sky, and down below the streets and outlying houses of 
Farbiggin could be traced by the soft, yellow lights. 

Far up on the opposite highlands the lurid trail of the train 
showed forth the line to the north, and sounds came up from 
below of mixed street noises, now and then a distant shout, the 
strain of a band, the chorus of a hymn, and above all the wind 
howled exultantly. 

“ T’ divibs in t’ wind ! ” thought Nell, and involuntarily she 
threw out her arms to drive it from her. 

“ O God,” she moaned. “ I don’t kna whar I is ! I don’t 
kna what’s wrong wi’ ma to-neet, but I want summat ! Is it 
true as Thou canst give me what I want ? I can’t be what folk 
call religious. I can’t get saved as these others do ! But I 
want summut. Happen Mr. Ryder’s reet. Happen Jack’s 
reet ! Happen it is Thee as I want, Lord ! And if it is, 
coom. Oh, coom Lord, and save Nell Carradus from hersell 
and t’ divil ! ” 

It was a queer, odd prayer, but it contained what the Lord 
had been waiting for. 

He never enters unasked. He never rules by force. He 
loves in spite of all, but He rules over willing hearts alone. 

Nell was strongly mystical. She had never throughout the 
course of her life doubted for one instant the reality and 
personality of God and the devil. 

She was as sure of the devil and could, as she imagined, 


V BACCA QUEEN 347 

gauge his influence over her as if she had met him face to 
face. 

And in her imaginings of God she had been quite too 
realistic. God was not removed from her in any unknown 
sphere above and beyond herself. He was One with whom 
she had presumed to argue, to enter into antagonistic 
controversy. 

“ Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him ? 
He that reproveth God, let him declare it ! ” 

To-night for the first time Ryder seemed to have swept 
aside the cloud which obscured her vision, and showed her her 
attitude towards the Divinity in all its glaring impertinence, 
had made her realise the Jehovah grandeur of the God with 
whom she had felt at ease to enter into debate, as if He were 
altogether such an One as she. 

And to-night, as she stood out alone on the fell, with the 
roar of the gale in her ears, she bowed herself, and bowing she 
was glad. 

“ Oh, my God ! my God ! ” she moaned ; “ what about my 
father ? If I give in to Thee, I’se niver be able to ruin him, 
and I did want to ! ” 

Nell was no mighty prophet zealous for the Lord of Hosts 
like Elijah, yet nevertheless it seemed as though the still, small 
voice reached her, saying, “ What doest thou here, My child ? ” 

And in reply to that voice Nell, taking the question in all 
simplicity, cried out, “O God, for Christ’s sake, save me 
from mysell and t’ divil ! ” 

And with that cry, though the storm in the great world 
around her raged as before and would rage throughout the 
length of her days, the storm in Nell’s heart was stilled, and 
she entered the kingdom of heaven as a little child. 


CHAPTER XXXIX 

The old park in Weimar was a scene of brilliant festivity 
on the 20th of May, in honour of a birthday in the 
Grosherzolichen family. 


348 


T BACCA QUEEN 


“Ach, it is lovely, dearest Helenchen, that thou shouldest 
have come back to Germany, and that we should have this 
Fest, all ready prepared for thy birthday.” 

Eleanor laughed brightly. “ Oh, it is entrancing — exquisite! 
I will forget England — I will be once again a happy German 
Madchen ! ” 

Katchen laughed. “ My child, thou canst never be the 
same again, that I see. Thou art different, even now, from 
the old Helenchen — altogether English — there is no hope for 
us at all ! ” 

The night had not yet closed in, and there was the light of 
evening even yet glinting through the trees as they walked 
through the park. The excitements were only just beginning. 
Yet up and down the fairy lights were springing to life as if by 
magic, indicating the footpaths, the shrubberies, and rocky 
grottos with a whimsical illumination. Every window of the 
great Schloss was lighted up festively. 

The people were gathering from all parts, and already the 
walks were thonged with eager parties all joyfully anticipating 
the social time. 

All along the Belvedere Allee the chestnut-trees had decked 
themselves with their own unique ornaments, and the people 
were streaming along the avenue to enjoy the outdoor concert 
and refreshments of every description which were to be found 
at the far end. 

Eleanor could not have found herself in more truly charac- 
teristic surroundings. 

Everything was delightfully German. Up and down the 
groups of merry masqueraders, Foresters, Minnesingers and 
the like, were making their nonsense, and the sweetest strains 
of music could be heard from different quarters of the park. 

The charm of the old Vaterland came down once more upon 
Eleanor on this sweet May evening, so warm and balmy, 
with the soft spring air playing tenderly in and out amidst the 
newborn summer traceries. And it must be confessed that 
Eleanor was pleased to get once again under the glamour of 
the old times, for up till that evening she had been strangely 


V BACCA QUEEN 349 

disappointed at the result upon herself of this visit after which 
she had been so yearning. 

Nothing could exceed the warmth of her reception by her 
Weimar friends — she was feted and made much of to her 
heart’s content. 

Frau von Hervart had received her as of old, with her 
motherly manner, and the Herr General had outshone himselt 
in his deferential though somewhat quizzical courtesies. The 
old professor was enchanted to see her again, though he was 
deeply despondent over her touch. 

“ Ach, mein Kind, mein Kind ! This is fearful ! This is 
unspeakable ! Come, we must set to work this moment. All 
this carelessness, this inaccuracy, this slovenliness must be 
remedied ! ” 

And Eleanor bore him no malice for his opinion, but 
laughed, and rejoicingly placed herself once more at his 
disposal. His despotic rule was refreshing after her year of 
liberty. And as at last she regained to some extent her old 
power so that she was able once again to draw out the deeper 
spirit of the music, without outraging the professor’s ears by 
the impurity of her technique, he grew contented, and as 
he watched her victorious once more, it struck him that the 
playing was stronger, wider, fuller, but still a trifle harsh and 
ungoverned. 

“ Und die Liebe, mein Kind ? ” he questioned, and Eleanor 
blushed violently. 

“ Das Madchen need say nothing ? ” and he smiled. “ Das 
Madchen has not yet found the true love.” 

“ Herr Professor ! ” 

“ Ach, I know something — much ! She would not play so, 
if she had found the true love ! ” 

Eleanor laughed, but a trifle bitterly. “ Die treue Liebe ! I 
think I don’t believe in it ! ” 

“ Nicht ? You think you don’t ! Ach, Liebes Kind, you 
believe it still with all your heart. ... You are waiting even 
now. Is it not so ? ” 

Was she waiting ? Eleanor did not answer the question, 


350 


T BACCA QUEEN 

could not have answered it. All she did know, however, 
was all the anticipated delight and charm of the dear old 
Vaterland did not somehow satisfy her. She had sought to 
take up the old life again exactly as she had left it, and she 
was dismayed to find that this could not be. 

Even in Wiemar, amongst those she thought she loved the 
best, the loneliness had followed her. She had sought the old 
Friedhof, that she might rest awhile. She felt that the sight of 
the quiet grave would comfort her and satisfy her heart, but 
again she found this was not so. 

She had gone again to the room over the stationer’s shop, 
and looked once more from the little window, and watched the 
cloudlets as they hung over the blue distance, but still she 
could not feel as she once had felt — it seemed that the old 
Thiiringer Wald had turned strange. She found herself com- 
paring the landscape with the wild Moorshire fells with their 
woodless rockinesses. The lonely valleys, the Windy Scar, 
the Red Fell reared themselves before her eyes. She yearned 
strangely for a canter with the beloved Graf up some of the 
wild valleys, and certain rides, certain views, certain snatches 
of conversations passed through her mind rapidly, yet all the 
while her eyes were looking from the window of the room in 
which her mother had died. 

But to-night on her birthday, surrounded by all this wealth of 
German festivity, surely the warmth of home would return 
once more. Now at last she would be able to satisfy herself 
with the spirits of the Vaterland. 

Yet she was ashamed to discover how disappointed she had 
been all day because no birthday greeting had arrived from 
England. 

“ Miss Glyn really might have written just a line ! ” she 
thought. 

So she and Katchen strolled along, greeting their friends and 
listening to the music, and laughing at the wondrous antics of 
the masqueraders, until it was time to meet the Herr and Frau 
General as they had appointed, beneath the great beech in the 
neighbourhood of the band. 


T BACCA OUEEN 


35i 

They sat down to listen to the music, which was certainly 
calculated to fill Eleanor with rapture. 

“ Oh, Katchen dearest, we never have music like this in the 
open air at Farbiggin ! Oh, think of it — what bliss to hear 
some beloved Tannhaiiser again, and Euryanthe, and even 
those delicious Strauss waltzes ! ” 

“lam gratified that there is still a little left of interest in 
the old Vaterland,” said Katchen ; “ for you know, Helenchen, 
that you cannot disguise the fact that after all your heart is in 
England — that Miss Glyn has taken it away, or else — well, other 
people ! ” 

“ There are no * other people,’ ” said Eleanor serenely. 
“ What nonsense you do imagine ! Having confided in you 
a little, Katchen, I rely on you not to do anything to remind 
me of die Liebe. It makes me so ashamed, and so angry — 
you can’t imagine how I feel ! ” 

“ Well, well, ruhig ! ” as the Herr Professor would say. 
“ Then we will dismiss all die Liebe from our minds, except 
die schwesterliche Liebe. She will not be a troublesome 
guest to spoil our feast ! By the by, we might as well have 
something while we are waiting. Devoted to chocolate and 
ices as ever, I have perceived, Helenchen ! ” 

So together they enjoyed themselves according to German 
custom, and the band still filled the air alluringly, and they 
waited on wondering what had hindered the Herr and Frau 
General from keeping the appointment. 

“ Cold ? ” asked Katchen, as they sat on. 

“ Not a scrap ! ” Eleanor returned. 

She wore a long white silk cloak, lined with fur, and a high 
collar of white fur framed her throat. It was thrown open in 
front, revealing a white gown, embroidered with gold — a gown 
new for the birthday. 

“ What a charming birthday I am having ! ” and Eleanor 
sighed. “ I cannot believe that I am really here ! You mus* 
excuse my making the remark so often.” 

“ Yes, it was lovely of you to think of coming ! Do you 
think we had better have a turn ? We might light upon the 
parents.” 


352 T BACCA QUEEN 

The girls rose, and strolled off down the Chestnut 
Avenue. 

“ There they are, endlich ! ” cried Katchen. “ But who is 
that with them ? They have evidently had some visitor who 
has hindered them.” 

Eleanor looked up, and saw the group of three walking 
towards them, and having seen, she walked forward com- 
posedly, but an odd look came into her eyes — a look of 
triumphant tenderness. 

She made no remark, however, to Katchen, and in another 
moment they had met. 

‘ Ach, here you are, my children ! ” said Frau von Hervart. 
*' We have been detained. Helenchen, mein Kind, it seems 
that this gentleman has come over from England with greet- 
ings for thy Geburtstag.” 

“ My father and sister send you their very warmest good 
wishes, Miss Carradus.” Ryder spoke quietly, but in his 
most stilted fashion, but the hand that Eleanor took was 
nervously cold. 

“You are very kind indeed,” said Eleanor. “Katchen, 
this is Mr. Glyn — Mr. Glyn, Fraulein von Hervart.” 

Ryder bowed, and held out his hand. “ I am very pleased 
to meet you,” he remarked. 

“ Shall we all turn back to the music ? ” suggested Frau von 
Hervart. “ I imagine that we are stopping the traffic.” 

So they all turned and walked back towards the brilliantly 
lighted bandstand, and perhaps because of the crowded 
thoroughfare, it came to pass that the Herr General and his 
wife and daughter passed forward in front, and in a few 
moments lost themselves in the festive throng of merry- 
makers, and Ryder and Eleanor were left alone. 

“ You are not angry ? ” he asked simply. Eleanor could 
not see his face very clearly in the darkening night, but she 
felt the anxiety in his tone, and as she looked up for an 
instant she noticed that his large grey eyes had sunk 
deeper into their sockets. 

Truly love in action is no beautifier. And he, looking 


T BA CCA QUEEN 353 

down on the vision by his side, gasped at his own temerity. 
The boldness of the stroke had overwhelmed Eleanor. 

“No, I am not angry — of course ” She added the 

last words after a slight pause. It was odd how her heart 
was dancing — odd how a sense of home was stealing over 
the evening. Yet she forced down the excitement stubbornly. 
“ He has never made love to me in his life. This is nothing 
but his intolerable politeness ! ” she thought. 

“ I came, you know, because I really could not help it.” 

“ Did you ? ” 

“ May I tell you why I could not help it ? ” 

“ I suppose so.” 

“I could not help coming to you on your birthday — the 
first day that you were free from my father’s guardianship — 
because I love you with all my heart and life, and I want to 
know if you will marry me.” 

The case was perfectly clear. In the fewest possible words 
Ryder had explained it. 

“ And when do you want an answer ? ” 

“ To-night.” 

They walked on a few paces in silence. The busy throng 
moved around them ; gay laughter, strains of music, the 
unknown babble of the German tongue — all this seemed 
unreal and dream-like to Ryder Glyn. He could only grasp 
the one fact that the tension was at its tightest stretch. He 
was actually walking with Eleanor Carradus; he had said 
what he had been dreaming of saying for so long, and any 
moment he might hear an answer. 

“ Would you mind a German wedding ? ” 

Now, this young man thought he was prepared for every 
phase of answer that might come, but this short query 
seemed to take his breath away ; it found him totally 
unprepared. 

“I — that is to say Oh, of course — certainly, if you 

like.” 

Surely there was some step missing in the proceedings. 
Painfully he laboured to set the matter straight. 


354 T BACCA QUEEN 

“ Then do I understand — is it true that you really do love 
me — will marry me?” 

Eleanor could not restrain herself from laughing a soft 
little laugh. 

“ Oh, dear me ! How stupid you are, — Teddie ! ” 

He could have seized her in his arms there and then, 
but even he was wise enough to know that further advance 
at present might mean instant retreat. He took her hand, 
however, and laid it in his arm. 

“ I don’t seem to mind how stupid I am, if you will call 
me by that name, Eleanor.” 

“ But you never courted me,” she expostulated. 

“ But I have always tried to be kind.” 

“ Kind ! ” There was a touch of scorn in the voice. 
“ Kind ! and you never even wished me goodbye ! ” 

“ I could not trust myself.” 

It was dark now except for the illuminations and the 
glorious heaven full of laughing stars and radiant planets, 
and the two wandered away from the main thoroughfare 
down a grassy slope. 

“ Would you like to sit down and listen to the music ? ” 
asked Eleanor. 

“ Very much. How wonderful it is here ! What is it that 
they are playing ? ” 

“Ein Liebestraum, ” said Eleanor, with a peaceful sigh of 
intense satisfaction. 

“ And I may write and tell Mary ? ” 

“Oh, yes ! Dear Mary ! ” 


CHAPTER XL 

Nell was sitting making a little frock for Polly as John 
Fleming entered the room. She rose. 

“Well, dear?” 

“ It’s a’ reet, Jack ! ” 

“ Then may I ? ” he asked tremulously. 


T BACCA QUEEN 


355 


“I suppose so,” and she yielded herself to him. 

“And you don’t mind my being poor and beginning 
quietly ? ” 

“Naa, Jack.” 

“ And you won’t let anything divide us any more ? ” 

“ Niver.” 

There was silence in the room save for the ticking of the 
great clock. 

“ And, Jack ! Thoo hesn’t sin Uncle William, happen ? ” 

“No. I’ve seen no one and heard from no one in 
Farbiggin for a long time. At least it seems long to me. 
But my father it was who said, ‘ Jack, you are a fool ! Go 
along and try again ; ’ and so I came.” 

Nell was silent and fidgeted with her needle. 

“ Why, has something happened ? ” he added anxiously. 

Surely the cup of happiness was not going to be dashed 
from his lips. 

“ Oh no, nowt has happened ; nobbut I can give tha ^2,000 
any time for thy business ! ” 

Jack’s ambitious mind could not help leaping in excitement 
at hearing Nell’s calm sentence; but the next instant he 
gasped — 

“ But, Nell, you never thought that I knew that ?” 

“Ger oot, thoo auld fool, Jack! What does ta tek me 
or?” 

For answer Jack kissed her passionately. 

“And, Nell dear, I meant to tell you — I can’t make you 
into a lady as ” 

Nell sprang to her feet. 

“Jack! Jack!” she cried piteously. “Don’t thee say 
yon word again! Yon word ‘lady’ hes va near been t 1 
ruin o’ Nell Carradus. It’s a ’Bacca lass as thoo’s courted 
and it’s a ’Bacca lass thoo’s getten.” 

“ A Bacca Queen, dearest ! ” he corrected. 

“And Jack’s wife !” she added triumphantly. 


THE END. 


APPLETONS’ TOWN AND COUNTRY LIBRARY. — ( Continued.) 


75. The Three Miss Kings. By A. 

Cambridge. 

76. A Matter of Skill. By B. Whitby. 

77. Maid Marian , and Other Stories. 

By M. E. Seawell. 

78. One Woman's Way. By E. Pen- 

dleton. 

79. A Meixiful Divorce. By F. W. 

Maude. 

80. Stephen Ellicott's Daughter. By 

Mrs. J. H. Needell. 

81. One. Reason Why. By B. Whitby. 

82. The Tragedy of Ida Noble. By 

W. C. Russell. 

83. The Johnstovm Stage , and Other 

Stories. By R. H. Fletcher. 

84. A Widower Indeed. By R. Brough- 

ton and E. Bisland. 

85. The Flight of a Shadow. By G. 

MacDonald. 

86. Love oi' Money. By K. Lee. 

87. Not All in Vain. By A. Cambridge. 

88. It Happened Yesterday. By F. 

Marshall. 

89. My Guardian. By A. Cambridge. 

90. The Story of Philip Methuen. By 

Mrs. J. H. Needell. 

91. Amethyst. By C. R. Coleridge. 

92. Don Braulio. By J. Valera. 

Translated by C. Bell. 

93. The Chronicles of Mr. BUI WU- 

liams. By R. M. Johnston. 

94. A Queen of Curds and Cream. By 

D. Gerard. 

95. “ La Bella " and Others. By E. 

Castle 

96. “ December Roses." By Mrs. Camp- 

bell-Praed. 

97. Jean de Kerdren. By J. Schultz. 

98. Etdka's Vow. By D. Gerard. 

99. Cross Currents. By M. A. Dickens. 
100. His Life's Magnet. By T. Elmslie. 
101- Passing the Love of Women. By 

Mrs. J. H. Needell. 

102. In Old St. Stephen's. By J. Drake. 

103. The Berkeleys and their Neighbors. 

By M. E. Seawell. 

104. Mona Maclean , Medical Student. 

By G. Travers. 

105. Mrs. Bligh. By R. Broughton. 

106. A Stumble on the Threshold. By 

J. Payn. 

107. Hanging Moss. By P. Lindau. 

108. A Comedy of Elopement. By C. 

Reid. 

109. In the Suntime of her Youth. By 

B. Whitby. 

110. Stories in Black and White. By T. 

Hardy and Others. 

11 01 An Englishman in Paris. 

111. Commander Mendoza. By J. Va- 

lera. 

112- Dr. Pauli's Theory. By Mrs. A. M. 
Diehl. 


113. ChUdren of Destiny. By M. E. 

Seawell. 

114. A Little Minx. By A. Cambridge. 

115. Capt'n Davy's Honeymoon. By H. 

Caine. 

116. The Voice of a Flower. By E. 

Gerard. 

117. Singularly Deluded. ByS. Grand. 

118. Suspected. By L. Stratenus. 

119. Lucia , Hugh , and Another. By 

Mrs. J. H. Needell. 

120. The Tutor's Secret. By V. Cher- 

buliez. 

121. From the Five Rivers. By Mrs. F„ 

A. Steel. 

122. An Innocent Impostor , and Other 

Stories. By M. Gray. 

123. Ideala. By S. Grand. 

124. A Comedy of Masks. By E. Dow- 

son and A. Moore. 

125. Relics. By F. MacNab. 

126. Dodo: A DetaU of the Day. By 

E. F. Benson. 

127. A Woman of Forty. By E. Stuart. 

128. Diana Tempest. By M. Cholmon- 

deley. 

129. The Recipe for Diamonds. By C. 

J. C. Hyne. 

130. Christina Chard. By Mrs. Camp- 

bell-Praed. 

131. A Gray Eye or So. By F. F. 

Moore. 

132. Earlscourt. By A. Allardyce. 

133. A Marriage Ceremony. By A. 

Cambridge. 

134. A Ward in Chancery. By Mrs. 

Alexander. 

135. Lot 13. By D. Gerard. 

136. Our Manifold Nature. By S. 

Grand. 

137. A Costly Freak. By M. Gray. 

138. A Beginner. By R. Broughton. 

139. A Yellow Aster. By Mrs. M. Cae- 

pyn (“ Iota”). 

140. The Rubicon. By E. F. Benson. 

141. The Trespasser. By G. Parker. 

142. The Rich Miss Riddell. By D. 

Gerard. 

143. Mary Fenwick's Daughter. By B. 

Whitby. 

144. Red Diamonds. By J. McCarthy. 

145. A Daughter of Music. By G. Col. 

more. 

146. Outlaw and Lawmaker. By Mrs. 

C ampbell-Pra ed . 

147. Dr. Janet of Harley Street. By A. 

Kenealy. 

148. George Mandeville's Husband. By 

C. E. Raimond. 

149. Vashti and Esther. 

150. Timar's Two Worlds. By 

Jokai. 

151. A Victim of Good Luck. By W. E. 

Norris. 


APPLETONS’ TOWN AND COUNTRY LIBRARY. — ( Continued.) 


152. The Trail of the Sword. By G. 

Parker. 

153. A Mild Barbarian. By E. Faw- 

cett. 

154. The God in the Car. By A. 

Hope. 

155. Children of Circumstance. By Mrs. 

M. Caffyn. 

156. At the Gate of Samaria. By W. J. 

Locke. 

157. The Justification of Andrew Le- 
, brun. By F. Barrett. 

158. Dust and Laurels. By M. L. Pen- 

dered. 

159. The Good Ship Mohock. By W. C. 

Russell. 

160. Noemi. By S. Baring-Gould. 

161. The Honour of Savelli. By S. L. 

Yeats. 

162. Kitty's Engagement. By F. War 

den. 

163. The Mermaid. By L. Dougall. 

164. An Arranged Marriage. By D. 

Gerard. 

165. Eve's Ransom. By G. Gissing. 

166. The Marriage of Esther. By G. 

Boothby. 

167. Fidelis. By A. Cambridge. 

168. Into the Highways and Hedges. By 

F. F. Montresor. 

169. TheVengeance of James Vansittart. 

By Mrs. J. H. Needell. 

170. A Study in Prejudices. By G. 

Paston. 

171. The Mistress of Quest. By A. Ser- 

geant. 

172. In the Year of Jubilee. By G. Gis- 

sing. 

173. In Old New England. By H. 

Butterworth. 

174. Mrs. Musgrave — and Her Husband. 

By R. Marsh. 

175. Not Counting the Cost. ByTASMA. 

176. Out of Due Season. By A. Ser- 

geant. 

177. Scylla or Charybdis? By R. 

Broughton. 

178. In Defiance of the King. By C. C. 

Hotchkiss. 

179. A Bid for Fortune. By G. 

Boothby. 

180. The King of Andaman. By J. M. 

Cobban. 

181. Mrs. Tregaskiss. By Mrs. Camp- 

bell-Praed. 

182. The Desire of the Moth. By C. 

Vane. 

183. A Self-Denying Ordinance. By M. 

Hamilton. 

184. Successors to the Title. By Mrs. L. 

B. Walford. 

185. The Lost Stradivarius. By J. M. 

Falkner. 

186. The Wrong Man. By D. Gerard. 


187. In the Day of Adversity. By J. 

Blo undelle -Burton. 

188. Mistress Dorothy Marvin. By J. C. 

Snaith. 

189. A Flash of Summer. By Mrs. W. 

K Clifford. 

190. The Dancer in Yellow. By W. E« 

Norris. 

191. The Chronicles of Martin Hewitt t 

By A. Morrison. 

192. A Winning Hazard. By Mrs. 

Alexander. 

193. The Picture of Las Cruces. By C. 

Reid. 

194. The Madonna of a Day. By L. 

Dougall. 

195. The Riddle Ring. By J. McCar- 

thy. 

196. A Humble Enterprise. By A. Cam- 

bridge. 

197. Dr. Nikola. By G. Boothby. 

198. An Outcast of the Islands. By J. 

Conrad. 

199. The King's Revenge. By C. Bray. 

200. Denounced. By J. Bloundelle- 

Burton. 

201. A Court Intrigue. By B. Thomp- 

son. 

202. The Idol-Maker. By A. Sergeant. 

203. The Intriguers. By J. D. Barry. 

204. Master Ardick , Buccaneer. By F. 

H Costello 

205. With Fortune Made. By V. Cher- 

BULIEZ. 

206. Fellow Travellers. By G. Travers. 

207. McLeod of the Camerons. By M. 

Hamilton. 

208. The Career of Candida. By G. 

Paston. 

209. Arrested. By E. Stuart. 

210. Tatterley. By T. Gallon. 

211. A Pinchbeck Goddess. By Mrs. J 

M. Fleming (A. M. Kipling). 

212. Perfection City. By Mrs. Orpen. 

213. A Spotless Reputation. By B 

Gerard. 

214. A Galahad of the Creeks. By S. L. 

Yeats. 

215. The Beautiful White Devil. By G. 

Boothby. 

216. The Sun of Saratoga. By J. A. 

Altsheler. 

217. Fierceheart, the Soldier. By J. C. 

Snaith. 

218. Marietta's Marriage. By W. E, 

Norris. 

219. Dear Faustina. By R. Broughton. 

220. Niilma. By Mrs. Campbell Praed. 

221. The Folly of Pen Harrington. By 

J. Sturgis. 

222. A Colonial Free-Lance. By C. O. 

Hotchkiss. 

223. His Majesty's Greatest Subject. By 

S. S. Thorburn. 


APPLETONS’ TOWN AND COUNTRY LIBRARY. -(Continued.) 


224. Mifanwy : A Welsh Singer. By A. 

RAINE. 

225. A Soldier of Manhattan. By J. A. 

At TaUTTT TJ'P 

226. Fortune's Footballs. By G. B. 

Burgin. 

227. The Clash of Arms. By J. Bloun- 

delle-Burton. 

228. God's Foundling. By A. J. Daw- 

son. 

229. Miss Providence. By D. Gerard. 

230. The Freedom of Henry Meredylh. 

By M. Hamilton. 

231. Sweethearts and Friends. By M. 

Gray. 

232. Sunset. By B. Whitby. 

233. A Fiei'y Ordeal. By Tasma. 

234. A Prince of Mischance. ByT. Gal- 

lon. 

235. A Passionate Pilgrim. By P. 

W" HTTK. 

236. This Little World. By D. C. Mur- 

ray. 

237. A Forgotten Sin. By D. Gerard. 

238. The Incidental Bishop. By G. 

Allen. 

239. The Lake of Wine. By B. Capes. 

240. A Trooper of the Empress. By C. 

Ross. 

241. Tom Sails. By A. Raine. 

242. Materfamilias. By A. Cambridge. 

243. John of Strathbourne. By R. D. 

Chetwode. 

244. The Millionaires. By F. F. Moore. 

245. The Looms of Time. By Mrs. H. 

Fraser 

246. The Queen's Cup. By G. A. Henty. 

247. Dicky Monteith. By T. Gallon. 

248. The Lust of Hate. ByG. Boothby. 

249. The Gospel Writ in Steel. By Ar- 

thur Paterson. 

250. The Widower. By W. E. Norris. 

251. The Scourge of God. By J. 

Bloundelle-Surton. 

252. Concerning Isabel Carnaby. By 

Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler. 

253. The Impediment. By D. Gerard. 

254. Belinda— and Some Others. By 

Ethel Maude. 

255. The Key of the Holy House. By 
Albert Lee. 

256. A Winter of Books. By G. Paston. 

257. The Knight of the Golden Chain. 

By R. D. Chetwode. 

258. Ricroft of Withens. By Halli- 

well Sutcliffe. 

259. The Procession of Life. By Hor- 

ace A. Vachell. 

260. By Berwen Banks. By A. Raine. 

261. Pharos , the Egyptian. By Guy 

Boothby. 

262. Paul Carah . Comishman. By 

Charles Lee. 


263. Pursued by the Law. By J. Mao- 

Laren Cobban. 

264. Madame Izdn. By Mrs. Camp- 

bell-Praed. 

265. Fortune's my Foe. By J. Bloun- 

delle-Burton. 

266. A Cosmopolitan Comedy. By 

Anna Robeson Brown. 

267. The Kingdom of Hate. By T. 

Gallon. 

268. The Game and the Candle. By 

Rhoda Broughton. 

269. Dr. Nikola's Experiment. By 

Guy Boothby. 

270. The Strange Story of Hester 

Wynne. By G. Colmore. 

271. Lady Barbarity. By J. C. Snaith. 

272. A Bitter Heritage. By John 

Bloundelle-Burton. 

273. The Heiress of the Season. By Sir 

William Magnay, Bart. 

274. A Voyage at Anchor. By W. 

Clark Russell. 

275. The Idol of the Blind. By T. 

Gallon. 

276. A Comer of the West. By Edith 

Henrietta Fowler. 

277. The Story of Ronald Kestrel. By 
A. J. Dawson. 

278. The World's Mercy. By M. Gray. 

279. The Gentleman Pensioner. By 

A T T>U*T>rp T ,1? T*’ 

280. A Maker of Nations. By Guy 

Boothby. 

281. Mirry-Ann. By Norma Lorimer. 

282. The Invmortal Garland. By Anna 

Robeson Brown. 

283. Garthowen. By Allen Raine. 

284. The Lunatic at Large. By J. 

Storer Clouston. 

285. The Seafarers. By John Bloun- 

delle-TBurton. 

286. The Minister's Guest. By Isabel 

Smith. 

287. The Last Sentence. By M. Gray. 

288. Brown of Lost River. By Mary 

E. Stickney. 

289. The Jay-Hawkers. By Adela E. 

OrpeNi 

290. The Flower of the Flock. By W. 

E. Norris. 

291. A Private Chivalry. By Francis 

Lynde • 

292. King Stork of the Netherlands. 

Bv Albert Lee. 

293. Path and Goal. By Ada Cam- 

bridge. 

294. My Indian Queen. By Guy 

Boothby. 

295. A Hero in Homespun. By Wm. E. 

Barton. 

296. A Royal Exchange. By J. Mac- 

Laren Cobban. 


D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK, 


APPLETONS’ TOWN AND COUNTRY LIBRARY. — ( Continued.') 


297. The Claim Jumpers. By Stewart 

Edward White. 

298. The Mystery of the Clasped Hands. 

By Gay Boothby. 

299. From the Unsounded Sea. By 

Nellie K. Blissett. 

300. The Seal of Silence. By Arthur 

R. CONDER. 


301. Four- Leaved Clover. By Max- 

well Gray. 

302. A Woman Alone. By Mrs. W. K. 

Clifford. 

303. When Love Flies Out o' the Win- 

dow. By Leonard Merrick. 

304. The Devastators. By Ada Cam- 

bridge. 


“ In Appletons’ Town and Country Library a poor book has not yet been pub- 
lished.” — Toledo Bee. 

“ The high average of merit maintained in the Town and Country series 
is very noticeable.” — Philadelphia Telegraph. 

“ You are always sure of being thoroughly entertained whenever you make a 
selection from Appletons’ Town and Country Library.’ '—Boston Herald. 

“ It is surprising how good an average is maintained by the Appletons in their 
series of current fiction known as the Town and Country Library. ” — Milwaukee 
Free Press. 

“ In selecting books for summer reading, one may always feel sure of getting 
something worth reading if they are of Appletons’ Town and Country Library.” 
—Boston Times. 

“ The fact that it is one of the Town and Country Library is a guarantee of 
its excellence, as only the choicest and best stories are selected for this series.” 
— Dubuque Herald. 

“ This series is one of most remarkable excellence, and its reputation has be- 
come such that it is by no means an easy matter to find just the work to keep it 
up to its standard.”— .Boston Traveller. 

“The assured excellence of D. Appleton and Company’s Town and Country 
Library is a great assistance in purchasing the light literature which is a part of 
the necessary equipment for travel or for the summer months in the country.” 
—Chicago Elite. 

“ The publishers of the Town and Country Library have been either particularly 
sagacious or very fortunate in the selection of the novels that have appeared in 
this excellent series. No one is lacking in positive merit, and the majority are 
much above the average fiction of the day. Any person who likes a good story 
well told can buy any issue in the Town and Country Library with the utmost con- 
fidence of finding something well worth while.” — Boston Beacon. 


D. APPLETON ANI) COMPANY, NEW YORK. 




























>R 25 1902 

icon uCa. 'oi.at.ow! 

APR, U *902 


MAY 3 1902 















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